Zim's Babysitting Job Of Doom
by FarSideOfTheSun
Summary: Zim is given the task of babysitting the Tallests' kids. Once again, no flames, but constructive criticism is welcome. Contains Red/OC and Purple/OC.
1. Out Of Control

**Hi everyone, FarSide here! Yep, I'm trying to write another story. I hope it will be as good as Space In **  
><strong>Your Face was. <strong>

* * *

><p>"My Tallests!"<p>

Almighty Tallests Red and Purple both spun around to face the smaller Irken that had just entered the room.

"What is it now, Tita?" Red demamded. He and Purple were enjoying a puppet show from Invader Skrump  
>(it was Probing Day) when they were interrupted by the unannounced visitor.<p>

The short, red-eyed Irken female gasped for breath three times before continuing. "It's the children, sirs,"  
>she said. "They're out of control!"<p>

Red rolled his eyes and groaned. His and Purple's smeets had been wild and unruly all week. Just yesterday  
>Rarl Kove, the head advisor, and three of the technicians had complained about ten different pranks the kids<br>had played on them.

"If it's not itching powder in their clothes, it's whoopee cushions on their chairs," Red mumbled to himself.

Purple took a deep breath and tried to stay calm. "Alright, Tita, what did they do this time?" he asked.

"I'm not sure," Tita replied, "but it had something to do with fake vomit and peanut brittle snakes in the  
>mechanics' lunch boxes. The head mechanic is threatening to go on strike if this continues."<p>

"Oh no, he won't!" Red rose out of his chair, eyes narrowed and glowing with anger. "No one's going on  
>strike - not while I'm around." He hovered toward the door.<p>

"Where are you going?" asked Purple, who remained seated.

"I'm going to have a little talk with those kids," Red replied as he continued down the hall toward his private  
>living quarters.<p>

* * *

><p>"That look on his face was so funny!" giggled Aiko.<p>

"Did you see the way she blushed?" asked Sheen.

"He'll never sit down without checking the seat again!" chuckled Tark as he banged his fist against the arm  
>of the couch he was sitting on, shaking from his uncontrollable laughter.<p>

The seven royal Irken children - four of whom were Red's (Tark, Aiko, Ven, and Sakura) and three Purple's  
>(Sheen, Max, and Mariah) - were in one of their parents' private lounges, enjoying a good laugh about their<br>latest prank. In an effort to combat their boredom from being on the Massive for so long, Tark and Sheen  
>thought up a number of pranks to play on the staff. Their younger siblings helped carry them out.<p>

The kids were still laughing and giggling when Red stormed into the room, scowling. Everyone immediately  
>fell silent.<p>

"Hi, Dad," said Ven, smiling innocently.

Red was not amused. "Hello, son," he replied grimly.

Tark, Sheen, Aiko, and Ven backed up against the wall. Sheen held Max in her arms, while Sakura and Mariah  
>sat on the floor at Tark's feet.<p>

"This is the last straw!" Red thundered. "You kids have really done it this time!" He put his hands on his hips.  
>"Something has got to be done about your crummy behavior."<p>

Ven looked up at his father. "Are you going to throw us out the airlock, Dad?" he asked nervously.

Red's eyes softened. "No Ven, certainly not," he replied, shaking his head. "Your mother would never forgive  
>me if I did." Red's wife, Azka, though calm and pleasant most of the time, had a fiery temper that even<br>frightened her husband.

"We're really sorry, Dad," said Aiko.

"It was my idea, mostly," Tark admitted.

"Mine, too," added Sheen.

Red smiled a little. "I'm glad you're apologizing," he said, "but you still need to be punished. No dessert tonight."  
>As he turned to leave the room, he added, "Just so you know, you're not out of the woods yet. I'm going to discuss<br>how else to handle this with your mother, uncle, and aunt."

* * *

><p><strong>P.S. I'm also making a comic about this story on deviantArt, so please check that out, too. The link to my deviantArt<strong>  
><strong>page is on my profile.<strong>


	2. A Job For Zim

Later that evening, after the kids were in bed, Red gathered Azka, Purple, and Purple's wife,  
>Gem, together in his and Azka's living room for a little discussion about the kids' recent behavior.<p>

"I can't take this anymore!" growled Red as he paced back and forth behind the couch where  
>the other three Irken leaders were sitting. "Hardly a day goes by without a complaint about<br>some prank the kids pulled. It's driving me crazy!"

Purple tried to placate his angry co-leader. "Calm down, Red. It's not like they murdered or  
>robbed someone, or vandalized someone's property. All they did was play a few tricks."<p>

"I know that, Pur, but they're still disturbing the peace around here, and no one's getting  
>any work done!" Red sighed in exasperation and cast a pitiful look at Azka. "What are we<br>going to do with them?"

Azka folded her hands together and placed them on her lap, as she always did when she  
>was trying to think. "Their energy has built up an awful lot over the past several days," she<br>remarked. "Maybe they need some time away from the Massive."

"What?" shrieked Purple. The idea shot through his brain like a torpedo. _Time away from_  
><em>the Massive?<em> _Time away from him and Gem?_ The mere thought of it caused him to shudder.

"Think about it," Azka continued. "They've been cooped up aboard this ship since the  
>beginning of this operation, which was almost a year ago. They need some fresh air,<br>and good, solid ground beneath their feet. I'm thinking two or three weeks in such a  
>place will be good enough."<p>

"Yes, but-" Tears welled up in Purple's eyes. One week without his babies close by  
>sounded bad enough, but two or three weeks without them was just plain cruelty<br>to him.

Gem placed her hand on her husband's armour-clad shoulder. "Pur, I know you don't  
>like being separated from our children for too long," she said, "but maybe this time, it's<br>for the best. Besides, some fresh air would be good for them, don't you think?"

"I guess so," Purple agreed. "It's just that...it's so dangerous out there, and I don't  
>want anything bad to happen to them."<p>

Gem giggled. "They'll be fine. Trust me."

Purple gave her a small smile and nodded in reply.

"Alright, then it's settled!" exclaimed Red, clapping his hands together. "Now, let's give  
>a certain someone a call. Heh heh!"<p>

Azka frowned, knowing very well who that certain someone was. "Are you sure that's  
>wise?" she called after her husband. But he had already disappeared down the hall<br>toward the communications deck.

* * *

><p>Zim gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes in deep concentration. Before him lay a<br>computer screen displaying the blueprints for his latest attempt at conquering planet  
>Earth.<p>

_There is absolutely no way the big-headed Dib-beast can stop me this time!_ he thought.

Sitting a few feet behind the defective Irken was Gir, his equally defective SIR unit. Normally,  
>Gir would have been upstairs watching the Scary Monkey show, but the cable was out that<br>day, so the little robot had nothing to do but pester his master.

"Whatcha doin', Master?" he asked.

An angry growl rose in Zim's throat. Gir had bothered him all day, and he was getting sick of  
>it. Scowling, Zim turned to face his obnoxious little minion.<p>

"Gir, if you interrupt me one more time, I'll-"

"INCOMING TRANSMISSION FROM THE TALLESTS!" announced the computer that controlled  
>Zim's base.<p>

"Eh?" Zim looked up in surprise. That was strange. Normally, he was the one who contacted  
>the Tallests, not the other way around. Why would the Tallests contact him? Whatever the<br>reason, it must be very important.

"Computer, take me to the communications room immediately!" Zim shouted as he marched  
>toward the elevator that would take him to other rooms in his base.<p>

"Yes, Master," sighed the computer.

As the elevator rose toward the communications room, Zim grinned and rubbed his hands  
>together with glee. "I wonder what wonderful words of praise they have for me this time!"<br>he cackled.

As soon as he arrived on the communications deck, Zim walked out of the elevator and on  
>to the control platform. The Tallests were already waiting on the transmission screen.<p>

"Greetings, my Tallests," said the smaller Irken. "In case you were wondering, the mission  
>goes well and everything is fine. Anyhow, I was-"<p>

"Um, yeah, that's nice Zim," Red interrupted. "Now listen - we've got a very special job for you."

A big smile spread across Zim's face. "A special job for Zim? Oh, thank you, my Tallests, you've  
>done the right thing! I promise you, you won't regret this!"<p>

"I'm starting to regret this already," Purple whispered to Red.

Red sighed and continued, "Zim, we need you to watch our kids while we, ehrm, take care  
>of some important Tallesty stuff."<p>

Zim's big smile vanished. A babysitting job was not what he had in mind. Gir was trouble enough,  
>but smeets? However, he did not wish to disappoint his leaders.<p>

"Very well, my Tallests," he replied, "I accept this great responsibility, understanding the  
>consequences you have bestowed against me."<p>

"Thank you, Zim," said Purple. "We'll send the kids to you tomorrow morning, so expect them  
>to arrive sometime tomorrow afternoon."<p>

"Absolutely. Invader Zim, signing off."

After the transmission was cut, both Tallests burst out laughing.

_This ought to be interesting!_ Red thought with a smirk.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's note: Just FYI, I did not intend to make Purple a sissy crybaby here. The impression<strong>  
><strong>I was going for was overprotective parent, which I think fits him pretty well.<strong>


	3. Arrival On Earth

"Are we there yet?"

The Irken pilot narrowed her eyes and turned to her cranky passenger. "I told you we get there  
>when we get there," she growled. "Now sit down!"<p>

Aiko sighed as she gazed out the window of Captain Shenk's Ring Cutter. She was impatient to  
>get to Earth so that she could play outside and get some exercise and do lots of other things she<br>couldn't have done while aboard the Massive. Sure, it was fun getting to travel through space  
>aboard a huge spaceship, but it did get pretty boring after a while. It sure would feel good to<br>stand on solid ground again!

"I'm hungry," whined Ven, who was sitting between Aiko and Tark. The three smeets were curled  
>up together between Tark and Sheen, sleeping peacefully.<p>

"Then why didn't you eat more at breakfast?" Tark asked his little brother.

"I don't know," Ven replied. "Mom and Dad were telling me to hurry up, so I didn't get to eat that  
>much - just a muffin and three donuts."<p>

Sheen pulled a Licky Stick out of her PAK and handed it to Ven. "Don't say I never did anything  
>nice for you," she told him.<p>

"Thanks, Sheen," said Ven as he started licking the candy with his long, worm-like tongue.

"Hey, how come I don't get a Licky Stick, too?" Tark protested.

Sheen just giggled and shrugged.

"Proximity warning, planet ahead!" the ship's computer announced, causing the napping smeets  
>to wake up and start crying.<p>

"Sshhh, it's okay, baby," Sheen said softly as she picked up Mariah and cuddled her. Tark picked  
>up Max and Sakura and placed them on his lap, where he began to bounce them on his knees.<p>

Aiko and Ven gazed out the window and admired the swirly brown and blue planet outside.

"So that's where we're going to stay for the next two weeks?" Aiko asked the pilot.

"Well, that's what your parents said," Shenk replied. "Now everyone buckle up, we're getting  
>ready to enter the planet's atmosphere."<p>

* * *

><p>Dib narrowed his eyes and squinted at a suspicious looking speck he just saw appear in the sky.<br>Wanting to get a better look at it, he opened his Swollen Eyeball briefcase and retrieved a pair of  
>computerized binoculars. As soon as he began to look through them, he gasped in horror at what<br>he saw.

A magenta-colored ship was zooming toward Zim's house. As Dib began to wonder why it was  
>going there, something caught his eye. The ship was sporting the same logo that was on Zim's<br>Voot cruiser.

That could only mean one thing: more Irkens had arrived!

Dib quickly climbed out of the tree he was hiding in and dashed down the street toward his house.

"Dad, they're coming!" he yelled as he flung open the door. "More of Zim's horrible race have  
>arrived! I was up in the tree, and I saw them land behind Zim's house, and-"<p>

"No more fooling around, son!" Professor Membrane called from his lab in the basement.

Dib raced into the living room, where his sister, Gaz, was playing video games. "Gaz, more Irkens  
>have arrived! I saw them land at Zim's house, and-"<p>

"Your voice is stupid!" Gaz growled. "Now go away and let me finish my game in peace."

Sighing, Dib walked up the stairs to his room. As soon as he entered, he flung himself on his bed  
>and glared out the window at Zim's house. Zim was no doubt planning another world domination<br>scheme, and this time he had friends to help him.

"You'll never win, you filthy alien," he whispered angrily. "Someday, somehow, I will reveal the truth  
>about you to the world and put you on the autopsy table - and maybe your new friends, too."<p>

* * *

><p>"You all take care, now!" Shenk called as she started her ship's engines.<p>

"Don't worry, we will," Tark replied. "Thanks for the ride."

Shenk's Ring Cutter zoomed away into the sky, leaving the kids and their baggage standing in front of  
>Zim's creepy base. Luckily, all the humans in the neighborhood were indoors eating dinner, so there<br>was no one to see them without disguises.

Puzzled, Tark stared at the strange house before him. "Is this the right address?" he mused aloud.

"Let's sleep outside," Ven suggested.

Sheen examined the front lawn carefully. Most of it looked pretty harmless, but those weird gnomes  
>lining the walkway gave her the creeps. And that "I "Love Earth" sign was, in her opinion, a dead<br>give-away.

"I'm going to see if anyone's home," she announced.

"Are you sure it's safe?" asked Aiko.

"I'll let you know when I find out," Sheen replied, then she started walking down the walkway toward  
>the front door. Every four or five steps, she would stop and stare at the strange lawn ornaments, then<br>shudder and continue walking.

When she arrived at the door, she sighed loudly, relieved. _So far, so good._ Sheen looked back nervously  
>at Tark, then smiled and laughed softly when he grinned and gave her a thumbs-up. Taking a deep breath,<br>she closed her eyes and began to knock on the door.

* * *

><p><strong>Boy, is Sheen in for a nasty surprise when she opens that door! Heh heh! <strong>

**Until next time! -Far Side**


	4. RoboParents Attack!

At the time the Tallests' children had arrived at his front door, Zim was in his underground lab,  
>making some adjustments to an Irken battery that was to power his newest invention. By this<br>time the cable was back on, so instead of pestering Zim like before, Gir was now upstairs watching  
>the Scary Monkey Show.<p>

"Almost done," Zim mumbled to himself as he made another sweep with the small laser he often  
>used to repair the smallest parts of his machinery. "Just a few more tweaks ought to do it..."<p>

"Master, there's someone at the door," the computer suddenly announced, causing Zim to almost  
>drop the battery.<p>

"You made me mess up!" the Irken shouted as he started to re-organize his workspace. "That battery  
>is an essential part of my newest doomsday device. It's also extremely fragile and extremely expensive.<br>Expensive!" He shook his fist directly in front of his face.

"Master, the door," the computer reminded its incompetent master.

Zim sighed in exasperation. "Can't you see I'm busy at the moment? Let the Robo-parents handle it,  
>that's what they're for, anyway."<p>

"Yes, Master," the computer replied, sending out a signal to awaken the Robo-parents from their slumber  
>in the closets near the front door.<p>

* * *

><p>"Welcome home, son!"<p>

Sheen jumped back in surprise as the door swung open. Standing in the doorway in front of her  
>was a poorly built robot resembling an adult human male. A few sparks shot out from the robot's<br>joints.

"Um, hello," said a very puzzled Sheen. "Is Invader Zim home?"

Another poorly built robot - this one resembling an adult human female - rushed forward to join the  
>robot-man at the front door.<p>

"Awww, have you come to play with our little boy?" the robot-woman asked sweetly. "Zim sure  
>is lucky to have such nice friends. Why don't you come on in?"<p>

Suddenly, the robot-man's hand shot out and grabbed Sheen by the collar of her soft  
>cashmere-like jacket. The young Irken girl screamed and tried to pull away, but the<br>robot-parents were already dragging her into the house.

Tark turned to Aiko and Ven. "Come on, let's go help her!" he commanded. The older Irken  
>kids grabbed the smeets and hurried into the house after Sheen and the Robo-Parents.<p>

"No, I'm not coming with you! Put me down!" yelled Sheen as she struggled to get loose.  
>Robo-Dad was holding her upside-down by her left foot and swinging her back and forth<br>like a hypnotist's charm.

"Awww, this is so cute!" exclaimed Robo-Mom. "Let me get the camera!"

She started to head for the kitchen when Aiko began attacking her with a broom. A few  
>minutes later, Ven joined in the attack with a mop, while Tark deployed his mechanical<br>spider legs from his PAK and ran after Robo-Dad.

"Let her go, you demented tin-head!" he shouted.

"Let's go play in the toilet!" exclaimed Robo Dad, dragging Sheen toward the toilet in the  
>kitchen. He was about to stuff her head first into the toilet when Tark stabbed him with<br>one of his PAK legs, causing the arm that held Sheen to pop right off!

"No, not my squeezing arm!" screamed Robo-Dad.

Sheen jumped to her feet, with Robo-Dad's arm still attached to her own, and deployed her  
>own PAK legs. Eyes glowing quite fiercely, she assumed a fighting stance and turned to face<br>Robo-Dad.

"You want to play?" she sneered. "Alright then, LET'S PLAY!"

* * *

><p>"ALERT! Something terrible is happening upstairs!"<p>

Zim jumped back from his workspace, surprised at the computer's sudden announcement.  
>Before he could say anything, a television screen lowered itself from the ceiling, displaying<br>Robo-Dad stuffing Sheen's head into his mouth, while Robo-Mom waved her arms around  
>and squealed with delight.<p>

"NOOOOO! THE MADNESS!" Zim screamed. The Tallests would never forgive him for this!  
>He dashed toward the elevator that lead to the kitchen and hopped out of the toilet. As<br>soon as his feet hit the floor, he scrambled into the living room and stopped suddenly,  
>gaping in shock at the scene before him.<p>

Tark had pinned Robo-Dad to the floor and sliced off his head with one of his PAK legs. Aiko  
>had knocked one of Robo-Mom's eyes out with the broom. Gir was sitting on the couch with<br>the smeets, watching TV, while Ven was following Minimoose around the room. Sheen sat on  
>the floor a few feet behind Tark, rubbing her forehead.<p>

"Hi!" Gir squealed when he noticed his master standing there. "The kids are here, so I let them  
>in." He grabbed Max and Sakura and snuggled with them. "I like babies!"<p>

"Meep!" squeaked Mimimoose.

"Yes, so you do," Zim replied, clearly not amused. "Now go outside and fetch the children's baggage!"

Gir squealed and shrieked as he jumped off the couch, then he hurried out the front door to fetch  
>the bags that the kids had left outside. A minute later, he was back with several red and purple<br>parcels, which he deposited next to the couch.

Zim turned his attention back to his young visitors. "Greetings, my princes and princesses," he said,  
>grinning cheerfully. "Welcome to planet Earth, home of the stupid and smelly humans. I am your host,<br>the almighty and all-powerful Invader Zim!" He held his fists in the air and struck a stunning pose. "I'm  
>sure your parents have told you all about my great and incredible deeds."<p>

"Yeah, Dad said you ruined Operation Impending Doom One," snapped Ven, pointing a finger of  
>accusation at his host.<p>

"Yes, I blew up more than any other Invader that day," Zim said proudly. "I'm so glad you remembered,  
>Prince Ventus."<p>

"Idiot! You BLEW UP all the other invaders!" Tark snarled. "Our biggest and most prosperous cities were  
>ruined that day, thanks to you!"<p>

Zim just smirked and chuckled.

"And let's not forget the day you made that energy-blob thing that ate Tallests Miyuki and Spork," added Aiko.

"Yes, yes, I am amazing, aren't I," Zim replied. "Now, enough about me. I'm sure you are all hungry  
>after your trip here, yes?"<p>

"Well, I am a little hungry," Sheen admitted.

"I had Gir make a special chocolate cake for you this morning. It's waiting for you on the kitchen table."  
>Zim turned around and headed toward the nearest elevator. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I must report<br>your safe arrival to your parents. We shouldn't give them reason to worry about you, should we?"

As they watched Zim disappear into the toilet, the four eldest children exchanged puzzled glances. This  
>was going to be a very strange vacation!<p>

* * *

><p><strong>For all of you who were eagerly awaiting Zim's first interaction with the kids...I hope I didn't disappoint.<strong>


	5. Bedtime And Dirty Diapers

Tark blinked and rubbed his forehead as he stared into the oval-shaped mirror in the  
>lavishly decorated bathroom. Tired and weary from his long day of travelling, he was<br>more than ready to jump into that big, soft bed in the next room and fall asleep. But  
>first, he had to brush the chocolate cake off his teeth and wash his face.<p>

He squeezed a drop of Irken toothpaste on to his red and orange striped toothbrush  
>and began scrubbing the crud off his zipper-like teeth. As he brushed, he thought about<br>what Red and Purple had told him and Sheen before they left. The Tallests' warnings and  
>responsibility lectures remained fresh in his mind...<p>

_"Zim thinks we adore him, but we really despise him more than anything, for obvious reasons..."_

_"Don't let his shortness fool you. He's a pint-sized menace that has caused massive and _  
><em>irreparable damage to our Empire..."<em>

_"Watch him carefully. If he or one of his crazy machines gets out of control, you and Sheen _  
><em>must be ready to protect the younger ones. They're counting on you, and so are we..."<em>

Tark was so focused on his thoughts he almost choked on the mixture of toothpaste and  
>saliva that filled his mouth. He quickly spat the greyish-purple foam into the sink and began<br>to rinse his mouth. Having finished this, he grabbed a red wash cloth and a bar of soap and  
>prepared to wash his face.<p>

_That's strange,_ he thought, _why does the soap smell like bacon? And what's that tube labeled  
>'Acne Blast' for...?<em>

* * *

><p>While the children got ready for bed, Zim contacted the Tallests to tell them of their children's<br>safe arrival on Earth.

"So my babies all arrived in one piece?" asked Purple.

"They did, my Tallest," Zim replied. "There was a little mishap at the front door when they first  
>came, but-"<p>

"Wait a minute, what kind of mishap?" Red asked suspiciously.

Zim turned a pale shade of green and took a deep breath before he continued. "They were...um...  
>ambushed by two of my robots that were malfunctioning. But thanks to my incredible combat skills,<br>the crisis was averted. The children emerged unharmed, without a single scratch. They are now in  
>the suites I prepared especially for them, getting ready for bed."<p>

Azka crossed her arms over her chest and frowned at Zim. "I'm warning you, you little troublemaker,"  
>she growled. "If my kids end up fried, burned, maimed, captured, or harmed in any way on that planet,<br>I'll have you shipped straight back to Foodcourtia faster than you can say 'Pinky Pie'!"

Zim shuddered at Azka's warning. He knew very well that when his Tallest's wife spoke like that,  
>she meant business. The very last thing he wanted in the world was to go back to frying mooshminkies<br>and Vort dogs on Foodcourtia. Even the memory of that horrible greasy planet made him sick!

"Very well, my Tallests," he said, trying to cover up his nervousness with a confident smile.  
>"I shall do my best to keep the princes and princesses safe on this wretched dirt ball. I promise<br>you will not regret entrusting them to my care. Zim out!"

Purple shuddered as the transmission ended. "I'm scared," he whispered.

"Me, too," Red whispered back.

Azka and Gem just looked at each other and shook their heads.

* * *

><p>As soon as the transmission was cut, Gir came running into the communications room.<p>

"Master, the babies won't go to sleep!" he said.

"What?" Zim snarled. "They were asleep just a few minutes ago. Did you make too much  
>noise and awaken them?"<p>

"I made cherry pie," Gir squealed.

Zim stomped into the elevator, muttering all the Irken swear words he knew. Once inside,  
>he pressed the button that would take him to the guest rooms he'd prepared for the children.<br>When he arrived on the correct floor, he ran down the hall to the nursery where the three  
>smeets slept.<p>

The nursery was decorated in swirly pastel colors, with cute and colorful animals scampering  
>across the lower half of the wall. In the center of the room were three small cribs, two decorated<br>in pink, the third in blue. The smeets lay in the cribs, screaming and bawling and refusing to go to  
>sleep.<p>

Zim tiptoed up to the cribs, wincing as the smeets' cries assaulted his hearing organ. He first  
>checked on Sakura, then Max, and finally Mariah.<p>

"The little monsters!" he hissed to himself. "What are they crying about when they have nothing  
>to - SWEET MOTHER OF IRK! WHAT IS THAT STINK?"<p>

Zim stumbled backwards, gagging at the horrible smell of a dirty diaper. He pulled himself back  
>up and began checking each smeet for signs of dooky. The two girls were both clean, so that left<br>Max. Zim carefully lifted the violet-eyed male smeet out of his crib and sniffed his behind.

"Ugh!" Zim exclaimed, holding Max out at arm's length. "It's him alright!"

At that moment, Sheen entered the room, followed by Gir.

"What's going on?" she asked. Her question was answered when she, too, noticed the smell.  
>Coughing slightly, she stumbled backward and braced herself against the wall. Her tongue<br>hung from her mouth like a dead worm from a fishing hook.

"Looks like someone needs his diaper changed," she remarked.

"You're just in time, Princess Sheen," said Zim, trying to hand Max over to his big sister. "It  
>appears your little brother made a dooky. Can you change him?"<p>

"I like dooky!" Gir piped up cheerfully.

Sheen shook her head. "Uh-uh! Forget it, I'm not touching that! Change him yourself!"

"I don't know how," Zim protested.

Sheen sighed. "Fine, I'll show you."

She took Max from Zim and headed toward the changing table. She motioned for Zim to  
>follow, which he did. After laying the fussy smeet down on the table, she opened one of<br>the drawers at the bottom and pulled out a clean diaper, a bottle of baby powder, and a  
>box of wipes.<p>

"Okay, now first you remove the old diaper," she explained. "Then you hold up his legs like  
>this and clean him up with the wipes." She grabbed Max's ankles and held them up. "After that,<br>you take the dirty diaper and wipes, wrap them up together, and throw them away. Then you  
>sprinkle him with the powder, and finally put the clean diaper on him." She stepped away from<br>the table. "Now you try."

Zim gagged and winced, but Sheen refused to budge. Sighing, he reluctantly began the task.  
>Max cooed and sucked his fingers as he watched the older Irken make funny faces while he<br>changed him. A few minutes later, the job was finished.

"See, that wasn't so bad," Sheen remarked as she placed Max back into his crib. The other  
>two smeets were asleep by now - and so was Gir.<p>

"Speak for yourself," moaned Zim, who looked like he was about to throw up.

Sheen rolled her eyes. "Get used to it. Well, I'm going back to bed. Good night." With that,  
>she left the nursery and walked back to her room, leaving Zim with three sleeping smeets<br>and a SIR unit on stand-by mode.

"Good night, Princess," the weary Irken whispered.

* * *

><p><strong>Hee hee, this chapter was fun to write! I bet all you Zim fangirls hate me now...<strong>  
><strong>Anyway, read and review, or Gir's head will explode.<strong>


	6. Breakfast At Zim's

Zim yawned as he trudged slowly through the kitchen. Last night had not been a good night  
>for him at all, as the Tallests' kids had kept him up all night with their demands and complaints.<br>Tark complained about the soap smelling like bacon, Sheen demanded warmer and softer blankets,  
>Aiko and Ven kept asking for something to drink, and it seemed that the smeets needed their diapers<br>changed every few hours.

_If this keeps up,_ the pint-sized Irken thought, _I'll never conquer Earth and destroy the humans!_

Zim pulled his fake wig and contacts out of his PAK and put them on. He then grabbed a notepad and  
>pencil and began to write a note:<p>

_My dearest Princes and Princesses,_

_I am at the school. Don't worry about breakfast, Gir will take care of that. DO NOT leave the house _  
><em>while I'm gone, or the humans will get you and eat you for supper. If you need anything, you can <em>  
><em>reach me through my comlink. My call number is -<em>

"Master, the babies are awake!"

Zim slammed his paper and pencil down on the kitchen table and turned around, eyes narrowed  
>with anger. Gir was standing in front of the toilet, holding the smeets. All three of them were fussing<br>and whimpering.

"Gir, put those smeets back to bed immediately!" snapped Zim.

"But they's hungry," Gir protested. As if trying to prove the SIR's point, Sakura tried to grab her  
>foot and stick it into her mouth.<p>

Zim rolled his eyes and groaned. "Oh, okay, but hurry up! I have to leave for school soon."

"Okey-dokey!" squealed Gir. He carefully placed each smeet into a high chair, then hurried to  
>the refrigerator and grabbed three canisters of smeet food, which he brought to Zim.<p>

"Okay, Gir," said Zim, "you get breakfast for the older children while I feed the smeets."

"Yes, Master," Gir replied, then hurried toward the stove to make waffles.

Zim opened one of the canisters of smeet food and sat down in front of the high chairs. The smeets  
>cooed and waved their arms excitedly, happy that they were going to be fed. Gagging at the smell<br>of the smeet food, Zim took a spoonful of the orange mush and placed it into the nearest mouth,  
>which was Mariah's. The lavender-eyed smeet accepted the food, only to spit it back out in Zim's<br>face.

The knee-high Irken screamed as he jumped back in his chair, causing it to tip backward and fall  
>to the floor, taking its occupant with it.<p>

"Noooooo, the madness!" wailed Zim, while the smeets giggled and squealed with glee. Then Max  
>grabbed the open smeet food canister and flung it toward the floor, splattering Zim with peaches-<br>and-cream flavored mush.

"Ewwwwww!" screamed the defective Irken as he flailed and kicked upon the floor. "Why must  
>you torture Zim so?"<p>

"What's the matter? Feeding smeets too hard for you?"

Zim opened his eyes to find Tark, Sheen, Aiko and Ven standing over him, giving him critical looks.  
>He immediately jumped to his feet, pulled a towel out of his PAK, and began wiping the smeet food<br>off his uniform.

"Nonsense," he replied. "I've been feeding smeets since before any of you were born. I just haven't  
>done it in a while, so I'm a bit rusty."<p>

"Uh-huh, sure," sneered Tark.

"Where's our breakfast?" Aiko demanded.

"Guess who made waffles?" a cheery voice piped up. The kids turned around to find Gir setting the table  
>with five empty plates and cups, a pitcher of orange juice, a bottle of syrup, a tub of butter, and two more<br>plates loaded with steaming waffles and crispy bacon.

Ven and Aiko immediately took places at the table and began piling bacon and waffles on their plates.  
>Tark and Sheen stared critically at the food, wondering if it was safe, until Zim nudged them both forward.<p>

"You should eat it," he said. "It may help you develop an immunity to the disgusting Earth food."

The three remaining Irkens took places at the table and began to eat, while Gir took over feeding the  
>smeets. This time, the smeets did not spit out their food or throw it on the floor, but ate it quietly.<p>

"Wow, your SIR sure is good with smeets," Sheen remarked, her mouth full of waffle. "He makes  
>good cake and waffles, too."<p>

"Yeah, I wish I had a SIR," said Ven wistfully.

"Maybe if you train to become an Invader, you'll get one someday," Zim told him.

Ven nodded in reply. "Yeah, that's what Dad and Uncle Taren told me."

The Irkens continued eating their breakfast in contented silence. As soon as the last mouthful of  
>waffle was swallowed, Zim got up from the table and headed for the door.<p>

"Where are you going?" asked Aiko.

"School," Zim replied.

"Can we come, too?" Ven asked excitedly.

"No, Prince Ventus, it's too dangerous. Stay here where you're safe and out of sight."

"Awww, please?" Ven begged. "There's nothing to do in this stupid house. I want to see more of the  
>planet."<p>

"Actually, that would be nice," Tark remarked. Sheen and Aiko nodded in agreement.

Zim rolled his eyes. "Fine, you four oldest may come. Gir and Minimoose will stay here and help House  
>Computer look after the babies."<p>

"I'm gonna play with the babies!" Gir squealed happily.

"Wait a minute, why do I have to baby-sit?" protested the computer.

"Because I said so!" Zim barked.

Turning back to the four oldest, he added, "You'll need disguises. Here, take these and put them on."  
>He handed each child a small ring with the Irken symbol on it. The kids slipped the rings on their middle<br>fingers and the disguises activated, causing them to look Irken no longer, but human. Their green skin  
>changed color to pale peach, and their eyes turned white with colored irises.<p>

Tark's disguise gave him black hair with red highlights, dark brown eyes, silver earrings, a dark grey  
>hoodie with matching baggy pants, and black shoes, while Sheen's provided light purple hair, dark blue<br>eyes, dark purple earrings, a lavender shirt with matching shoes, and pale blue Capri pants. Aiko's disguise  
>had pale green hair, green eyes, a pink and yellow jumper, and pink shoes. Lastly, Ven was disguised as a<br>boy with brown hair, green eyes, a blue T-shirt, denim shorts, and blue and white shoes.

As they made their way out the door to the bus stop, Zim gave the kids a safety lecture.

"Alright then, here are the rules," he began. "Look both ways before crossing the street, don't speak  
>unless spoken to, don't pet strange animals, don't ask the humans for help unless I say so, and most<br>importantly -" he held up a picture of a boy with glasses and a scythe-shaped lock of black hair on his  
>head "- stay away from the big-headed Dib-beast!"<p>

Tark studied the picture carefully. "That guy doesn't look like much of a threat," he said dryly.

"You have no idea, Prince Tarquin," Zim told him.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's note: Just FYI, Taren is my name for Tallest Purple. My name for Tallest Red is Talon.<strong>


	7. School Is Uncool

According to Sheen, the bus ride to the school was anything but pleasant. The seats were  
>unmercifully hard, the air smelled horrible, and the engine kept making funny noises. The<br>worst part so far was the horrible screech the bus made when it stopped for more passengers.  
>And being surrounded by all those smelly human kids staring at her was enough to make Sheen<br>want to throw up.

_What did I ever do to deserve this?_ the Irken princess thought miserably.

Just then, Tark nudged his companions, including Sheen, and pointed at the bus doors as they  
>opened. A black-haired boy that looked exactly like the one in Zim's picture climbed aboard the<br>bus, followed by a scary-looking girl holding a strange electronic device.

"It's that Dib-guy!" Tark whispered. "The one Zim warned us about."

"I see him," Sheen replied, "but who's that girl he's with?"

"That's his sister, Gaz," Zim told her. "I'd avoid her, too, if I were you."

As soon as Dib and Gaz took their seats, the doors closed, and the bus continued on its way. It  
>made five more stops for passengers before finally arriving at the school.<p>

The school was a rather dumpy-looking building, with patches of moss and lichen all over it. The  
>letters spelling "SKOOL" across its front looked like they were about to fall off. The only thing<br>decent about that place was the playground equipment, but even that looked pretty rusty.

"Ewww, we're going in there?" asked a very disgusted Ven.

"I'm afraid so, my prince," Zim replied. "But don't worry. Stick with Zim, and you'll be just fine."

Ven shuddered. Suddenly school didn't seem so much fun anymore...

* * *

><p>Zim escorted his charges to the front office so they could register as new students and be<br>assigned to their classrooms.

"Due to your different ages," he told them, "you'll probably each be assigned to a different  
>room. But don't worry, we'll all meet up again at lunch and at recess."<p>

Tark rolled his eyes as he proceeded into the office, followed by his siblings and Sheen. Not  
>even bothering to look at them, much less greet them, the secretary kept her eyes on her<br>computer screen, typing sentence after sentence.

"Um, hello," Tark said nervously. "We're here to register as new students."

The secretary looked up, obviously annoyed. "That's nice," she grumbled as she opened the  
>registry page. "What are your names?"<p>

"I'm Tark, and this is my brother Ven, my sister Aiko, and our cousin Sheen. We just moved here."

"That's nice," mumbled the secretary. "Now what grades are you in?"

"Um...Tark and I are both in fifth grade," said Sheen, pulling numbers from the air. "Aiko's in fourth,  
>and Ven's in first."<p>

The secretary nodded as she continued typing. "Now I'll need your birth dates, your records from  
>your previous school, and your medical records."<p>

"Um, the secretary from our old school said he would email that information to you when he had time,"  
>Sheen piped up. "He's a very busy man."<p>

The secretary sighed. "Fine, I'll keep an eye out for that email. You two -" she pointed at Tark and Sheen  
>"- are assigned to Ms. Bitters's class." She then pointed at Aiko. "You are assigned to Mr. Elliot's class."<br>Finally, she turned to Ven. "You are assigned to Miss Jennings's class. Now, all of you, stand under that  
>beam."<p>

The kids did as the secretary asked. The beam glowed red for about ten seconds, then vanished.

"You have each been implanted with a tracking device," the secretary explained. "That way, we know  
>your every move and every location. So don't even try to sneak out, because we WILL find you." She<br>returned to her desk. "Alright, you may go to your classes now."

The kids left the office, shuddering. Zim was sitting on a bench next to the door, waiting for them.

"Sheen and I are assigned to Ms. Bitters's class," Tark told him.

Zim smiled broadly. "Splendid! That's my class. Now how about Aiko and Ven?"

"Aiko goes to Mr. Elliot's class, and Ven to Miss Jennings's class," Sheen replied.

"Alright then," said Zim, standing up. "Prince Ventus, Miss Jennings's room is over there." He  
>pointed to a yellow door with a smiling sun on it. Turning to Aiko, he added, "Mr. Elliot's room<br>is right next to Ms. Bitters's. We'll drop you off on the way."

"Okay, see you guys later," said Ven as he headed toward his classroom, while the remaining  
>four Irkens continued down the hall.<p>

* * *

><p>Trembling, Ven reached out and knocked on the door in front of him. After a voice from the other<br>side said to come in, the boy opened the door and walked into the room.

Unlike most of the school, the first grade room was fairly pleasant. The walls were decorated  
>with pictures of clowns, suns, moons, flowers, animals, and other cheerful things. There were<br>five round tables in the room, each surrounded by a circle of children sitting in chairs. At the front  
>of the room, next to the blackboard, a woman with curly brown hair sat at the teacher's desk.<p>

"Hello there, you must be the new student," the teacher said cheerfully. "I'm Miss Jennings.  
>And you are...?"<p>

"Ven," the boy replied softly, suddenly feeling very shy.

"Welcome to my class, Ven," said Miss Jennings. "Now why don't you take a seat?" She pointed  
>to an empty space at one of the tables, between a blond-haired boy and a red-haired girl. "You<br>can sit there, between Toby and Mandy. Now everyone, it's Ven's first day here, so let's all make  
>him feel welcome."<p>

Ven took a seat at the spot Miss Jennings had pointed out. Most of the children either smiled at  
>him or stared curiously at him. However, one boy with dark brown hair and brown eyes kept giving<br>him death glares.

"Alright children," Miss Jennings began, "let's open our math books to page fifteen. Today, we will  
>begin learning about the three times table."<p>

As Ven opened the textbook in front of him, he noticed the brown-haired boy scowling at him.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"You're dead meat, new kid!" the boy whispered back.

Miss Jennings noticed this immediately. "Now Ryan," she scolded, "that's not very nice."

Ven slouched in his seat and sighed. Now he knew for sure school wasn't going to be any  
>fun at all...<p>

* * *

><p>"Class, this is Aiko," said a grinning Mr. Elliot as he introduced his newest student to the rest<br>of his class, who just grumbled and rolled their eyes in reply. "She's new here, so let's all give  
>her a warm welcome."<p>

Aiko stood in front of the other students and waved, smiling. A few children waved back, but  
>a certain girl whom Aiko remembered from the bus just glared at her. If looks could kill, Aiko<br>would have turned into a smoldering pile of ashes right there!

"Okay Aiko, why don't you take that empty seat behind Gaz?" Mr. Elliot suggested. "Now  
>let's get started on our geography lesson!"<p>

_What a shrink,_ Aiko thought as she sat at the desk behind Gaz. While Mr. Elliot continued to  
>talk about different countries on the planet, Gaz pulled out her Game Slave 2 and began playing<br>a video game. A curious Aiko tried to peek over her shoulder and watch.

"Go away!" Gaz hissed.

"I was just watching," Aiko protested.

Gaz gritted her teeth and turned to face the new girl, both eyes wide open and burning with  
>anger. "If you want to live to see your next birthday," she snarled, "then I suggest you LEAVE<br>ME ALONE!"

Aiko cringed at the girl's warning. "Um, okay," she whispered, wondering if she would ever  
>get through this day alive.<p>

* * *

><p>Ms. Bitters narrowed her eyes and glared at her two newest students. "If either of you<br>have something to say," she growled, "speak now, because I don't want to hear another  
>peep out of you for the rest of the school year!"<p>

Sheen looked at Tark, who looked back at her. Sighing, Sheen cleared her throat and began  
>talking about how she and Tark were new in town, and how she was living with Tark's family<br>while her parents travelled around the world and wrote stories and articles for National  
>Geographic. (She and Zim had thought this up while on the bus.)<p>

"Yes, that's just dreadful," Ms. Bitters replied. "Now both of you will need places to sit."  
>She pressed a button on her desk, causing two students to fall through the floor to the<br>Underground Classroom. "Sheen, you take the desk next to Jessica, and Tark, you take  
>the one behind Dib."<p>

Not waiting to be told twice, the Irken children took their assigned seats. While Ms. Bitters  
>droned on and on about how one day the earth would implode on itself and everyone would<br>die, Dib stared suspiciously at the two new kids. Luckily, the experience with Tak made him  
>wise to the Irkens' tricks. He stood up and turned to face Tark.<p>

"You can't fool me," he whispered menacingly. "I know you and your friend are aliens, just  
>like him!" He pointed at Zim, who was fiddling around with his pencil.<p>

"What is your problem, Four Eyes?" sneered Tark. "Have you been watching too much  
>television?"<p>

Dib jumped on Tark's desk. "Tak may have fooled me, but thanks to her, I know better  
>now." He pointed at Tark's hands. "See, only three fingers! Same as Tak's disguise. You're<br>an Irken!"

Tark stared at his hands. Sure enough, the disguise had not provided extra fingers. He  
>moaned and slumped in his seat.<p>

_I'm doomed,_ he thought miserably.

"Idiot!" Sheen stood up and glared at Dib. "He was born with only three fingers, same  
>as me." She held up her hand and wiggled her three fingers. "It's a family trait."<p>

Dib crossed his arms and glared back at Sheen. "Yeah, sure, I believe you. Just like I  
>believe Zim's story about the skin condition!"<p>

"It's true and you know it, Dib-stink!" shouted Zim. He stood up and prepared to fight.

Ms. Bitters's class immediately got excited and started egging Zim and Dib on.

"Fight! Fight! Fight!" the kids chanted, anxious to see some action.

Suddenly the bell rang, signalling that it was time for lunch. The kids stopped their  
>chanting and made a beeline for the door. Before Zim, Tark, and Sheen could leave<br>the room, Dib stopped them.

"This isn't over yet," he warned the three Irkens. "So help me, I WILL reveal your  
>true selves to the world!"<p>

"We'll see about that, Dib-beast," Zim sneered. "We'll see about that."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's note: Please forgive me for not knowing much about how students are <strong>  
><strong>registered at public schools. I was home-schooled, you see. <strong>

**Anyway, keep those reviews coming, please.** **~Farside**


	8. Cafeteria Chaos

Lunch at school was no more pleasant than the classes. The cafeteria was  
>crowded with kids pushing and shoving and cutting in line, eager to get<br>something to eat. The food looked and smelled disgusting, too, like something  
>that came out of a cow's stomach.<p>

"Ewww, what's this?" Aiko whined as she poked at the lumpy yellow mass on  
>her plate.<p>

"It's corn and mayonnaise casserole, cabbage-brain," growled Gaz, who was  
>sitting at the next table. "Now be quiet and let me finish my game in peace,<br>or you'll be sorry!"

Aiko sighed and turned back to her tray of gross Earth food, wondering why she  
>had to be in the same class as that scary girl. Her gaze drifted toward a table<br>where a group of girls dressed in fancy clothes sat. Every once in a while, one  
>of those girls would point at one of the other students and say something mean,<br>and the others would laugh like crazy hyenas.

_Hey, that's not very nice!_ the Irken girl thought indignantly. But, then again, it  
>reminded her of how her parents treated their service drones, especially the<br>short ones.

Meanwhile, Ven was in line to get his lunch. Dizzy from all the weird noises and  
>smells, he placed his hand over the lower half of his face, trying to block out the<br>nauseating smell of the food. Suddenly, his vision blurred, and the room seemed  
>to swirl around him. The voices of the other people in the cafeteria mixed and<br>mingled in his brain.

"Hey, new kid, get your lazy butt moving!"

A loud, obnoxious voice caused Ven to snap out of his trance. The Irken boy turned  
>around to face the person who had spoken so rudely to him. It was that bigger boy<br>from Miss Jennings's room. Ryan, was it?

Ven folded his arms across his chest and glared at his adversary. "Why don't you  
>pick on someone your own size?" he demanded.<p>

"Like you, little man?" Ryan sneered.

"Don't call me little!" shouted Ven. He marched forward and stomped as hard as he  
>could on Ryan's big toe. The bigger boy hopped around on one foot, bellowing in pain.<p>

"That's it!" Ryan screamed. He grabbed Ven by the front of his shirt and shoved him  
>face-first into the pot of corn and mayonnaise. Ven cried out, half from embarrassment<br>and half from pain, because the heat from the hot food stung his eyes.

The cafeteria immediately fell silent. Everyone was shocked at what that fat boy had  
>just done to that smaller kid. One of the teachers dragged a kicking and screaming<br>Ryan to the principal's office, while Tark marched up to the serving line and pulled his  
>brother away from the crowd that was gathered there.<p>

"What were you thinking, dummy?" the older boy demanded. "Don't you remember  
>what Dad said about getting into fights you can't win?"<p>

"I'm sorry, Tark," Ven sobbed. "That boy was bothering me all morning, and I was getting  
>sick and tired of it. I just couldn't let him pick on me any more!"<p>

Tark knelt down next to Ven and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I know it's hard, Ven,"  
>he said, "but you can't let everything other people say bother you. When people are mean<br>to you like that, it usually means they want to start a fight. Don't let them have it. Just walk  
>away, and they'll learn to leave you alone."<p>

Ven sniffed and rubbed his holographic nose. "Okay, Tark. I'll try that next time."

"Whatever you say, little buddy. Now let's go get you cleaned up."

While Tark and Ven left the cafeteria for the boys bathroom, Sheen glanced around the  
>room, trying to find something that would take her mind off Zim, who was sitting next to<br>her. He was trying to eat the cafeteria food without getting sick, and the weird noises he  
>was making made Sheen sick to her squeedilyspooch.<p>

"Why did Dad and Uncle Talon have to send me here?" she whispered to herself. "Why  
>couldn't they send me to Blorch? Any place would be better than here..."<p>

"Something wrong, space-girl?"

Jolted from her self-pity, Sheen spun sharply to the right to find Dib standing next to her.  
>His arms were crossed over his chest and his mouth was twisted into a devious smirk.<p>

"Get lost," growled Sheen. "You've bothered us enough today."

Dib looked at Sheen's lunch tray, which remained untouched. "What's the matter, you  
>don't like corn?" he sneered. "Or maybe the corn doesn't like you? Or, to be more specific,<br>your filthy alien body chemistry!"

Sheen's hand tightened into a fist. "I said leaved me alone already!"

"Just ignore him, my Princess," Zim whispered to her.

Dib remained where he was. "If you don't like the corn, perhaps you'd like something  
>else," he remarked. "Something like...BOLOGNA!"<p>

He pulled a round slice of bologna out of his pocket and slapped Sheen across the face  
>with it. The girl screamed and jumped out of her seat, only to slip on a banana peel some<br>stupid kid had carelessly left on the floor. Dib pointed and laughed when he saw a bumpy  
>pink rash appear on Sheen's face where the bologna had slapped her.<p>

"See, everyone? She IS an alien!" he announced as other kids gathered to see for  
>themselves. "Look, she has the same reaction to meat that Zim had! Without a doubt,<br>those other three new kids are aliens, too!"

"You're crazy," said Zita.

Sheen jumped to her feet and ran out of the room, holding a hand to her rash and  
>sobbing bitterly.<p>

Zim slammed his fist down hard on the table. "That was low even for you, Dib!" He  
>scooped a glob of corn and mayonnaise off his tray and jumped on the table. "I'll teach<br>you what happens when you mess with the child of an Almighty Tallest!" He tossed the  
>corn straight at Dib, who quickly jumped out of the way. The corn flew through the air<br>and hit the back of Torque Smackey's head.

The other kids gasped in horror.

"Oops," Zim squeaked, and scrambled under the table.

Torque glanced suspiciously around the room, looking for the person who threw the corn.  
>Everyone immediately pointed at Dib. Snarling like a rabid dog, Torque grabbed a handful<br>of mashed potatoes and hurled it at Dib. Once again, Dib jumped out of the way, causing  
>the popular girls to get hit instead.<p>

"Food fight!" screamed a random kid.

Suddenly, the entire room was in an uproar. Potatoes, corn, pudding, and other foods  
>went flying across the cafeteria, landing wherever. While the human kids threw their<br>disgusting food across the room, Zim quietly made his way to Aiko's table and motioned  
>for Aiko to follow him, which she did. The two Irkens made their way to the door and<br>slipped out into the hall. They found Tark, Sheen, and Ven waiting next to the water  
>fountain.<p>

"I suppose you've had enough of this school," Zim remarked.

"Yes, Zim, we sure have," Tark replied.

"Sheen's hurt bad, Zim," Ven said softly.

"I've never been so humiliated in my life!" sobbed Sheen. "I hope that Dib-worm falls  
>off a cliff and breaks his neck!" She glared at Zim. "You were supposed to protect me,<br>moron! Just wait until Dad hears about this."

Zim just stared at her, speechless. He looked to the other three kids for advice, but all  
>he received from them were blank stares.<p>

"Let's just get out of here before someone notices we're gone," he said lamely.

* * *

><p><strong>I think I made Dib too mean in this chapter.<strong>

**I made a picture of Tark, Sheen, Aiko, and Ven in their disguises. .com/art/ZBSJOD-Kids-Disguised-264299386**


	9. Pizza And Game Night

Just minutes after the Irkens had left the school, Ms. Bitters and three other teachers  
>stormed into the cafeteria, followed by the school principal. By now, the cafeteria was<br>a disaster. There was food all over the floor, walls, and tables. A few kids lay on the floor,  
>moaning and groaning.<p>

"Who is responsible for all this?" the principal demanded.

Without hesitation, everyone pointed at Dib.

"I should have guessed," growled Ms. Bitters. After a brief discussion with the principal  
>and the other three teachers, she turned back toward the students and added, "None of<br>you are to leave school grounds until this room has been cleaned spotless. And since Dib  
>was the cause of this, after the cafeteria is clean, he will write 'Zim is definitely not an alien'<br>two hundred times on every blackboard in the school."

"But Zim -" Dib started to protest.

"Silence!" snapped Ms. Bitters. "Now all of you, get busy!"

One of the other teachers handed out tiny sponges the size of ping-pong balls, and the  
>children got to work. Every once in a while, someone would cast a mean look at Dib, who<br>was cleaning chocolate pudding off one of the tables. Dib, however, was too deep in thought  
>to even notice the nasty looks his classmates gave him.<p>

"Zim said something about me messing with the child of a Tallest," he mused to himself.  
>"I know for a fact that the Tallests are the leaders of Zim's horrible race. I wonder, was<br>that girl the daughter of one of Zim's leaders? If she is, then why is she here..? Unless..."

He snapped his fingers.

"Gaz, I know who those new kids are," he announced. "They are the children of Zim's  
>leaders. They were probably sent here for protection against their parents' enemies."<p>

"Go away, Dib," growled Gaz, who was trying to scrape ketchup and rice off the floor  
>and play Vampire Piggy Hunter at the same time.<p>

Dib continued to think and make plans while he cleaned. "This time for sure," he muttered,  
>suddenly filled with conviction. "Zim will have no choice but to surrender! My nightmare is<br>over! The Earth is saved!"

The other kids just stared at him and shook their heads.

"You're crazy," said Melvin.

* * *

><p>That evening, back at Zim's house, the kids were curled up on and around the couch,<br>watching TV with Gir. Sheen held an Irken ice pack against the welt on her forehead,  
>while Tark balanced a bowl of popcorn on his knee. Aiko and Ven played on the floor<br>with the smeets.

Zim watched Gir and the kids from the doorway to the kitchen, a worried look on his  
>face. He had tried to contact the Tallests as soon as he arrived home from school, but<br>the transmission wasn't getting through. That could only mean something was wrong  
>aboard the Massive.<p>

_What was going on? Were the Tallests under attack? What if...?_

"Nonsense," Zim told himself. "I'm sure whatever it is, it isn't serious. No one would  
>dare go up against the Massive. But maybe the children would like to know if their<br>parents are alright..."

After thinking it over for a few minutes, Zim decided to return to his communications  
>room and try to contact the Tallests again. As he climbed into his toilet elevator, he<br>heard Gir and the kids laughing loudly at the stupid television show they were watching.

_Stupid TV,_ thought Zim as he disappeared into his underground base.

The kids, meanwhile, were focused only on their TV show. It was a reality show  
>about a nanny going into a house full of badly behaved kids. On screen, the nanny<br>had just given a three-year-old boy a time-out for throwing his bowl of soup on the  
>floor.<p>

"Boy, am I glad Tita doesn't do that when we misbehave," Aiko remarked.

"Because if she did, she'd go straight out the air lock," added Tark.

"But I'd never throw my soup on the floor," Ven pointed out.

"Of course not, Ven," Tark told him. "Everyone knows that Irken children are a lot  
>better behaved than those stinky human children."<p>

Sheen did not say anything about the show. Instead, she picked up Mariah and  
>cuddled her on her lap. The smeet babbled and cooed, happy to see her big sister.<p>

"You know, our parents haven't contacted us since we arrived on this planet," she  
>mused. "I wonder what's going on..."<p>

"You say something, Sheen?" asked Tark.

Sheen shook her head. "It was nothing, Tark. Nothing at all."

Zim returned to the living room just as the show ended. Once again, he had failed  
>to open a communication line to the Tallests. In an effort to get the kids' attention,<br>he cleared his throat.

"What's up, Zim?" asked Aiko. "Did you call our parents?"

"Um...Yes I did, Princess Aiko," Zim lied. "They're doing fine, and they hope that you  
>are doing just as well." He looked at the ground and shuffled his feet before continuing.<br>"I am very sorry about what happened at school today, and I was wondering...How  
>would you like to go someplace special tonight?"<p>

"Someplace special?" Sheen asked.

"Yes, like out for fast food or ice cream or video games," Zim replied. "What do you say?"

The kids gathered together in a huddle to discuss Zim's proposal, while Zim waited anxiously.  
>After talking it over for five minutes, the kids had their answer ready.<p>

"Sure, Zim, sounds great," answered Tark. "Where are we going?"

Before Zim could come up with an answer, Gir pointed at the TV and squealed, "How about  
>that place?"<p>

On screen was a commercial for Bloaty's Pizza Hog. Kids sang and danced in circles around  
>a big, fat pig who stuffed pizza slice after pizza slice into his mouth.<p>

"Come to Bloaty's Pizza Hog!" the pig was saying. "We got games! We got Bloaty! We  
>got pizza! What more could you ask for?"<p>

"That place looks like fun!" exclaimed Aiko. "Let's go there." The other kids immediately agreed.

_Oh Irk, no!_ Zim thought. _Not that place! Anywhere but there...!_

* * *

><p><em><strong>DUN DUN DUNNNN!<strong>_

Forty-five minutes later, Zim found himself sitting in a booth at Bloaty's Pizza Hog,  
>surrounded by screaming kids, costumed characters, flashing lights, beeping noises,<br>and the smell of freshly baked pizza. The mere memory of what happened last time  
>he was here caused the Irken to shudder.<p>

Zim was disguised as an old man. The kids wore the disguises they had worn at  
>the school. The smeets were disguised as human babies, riding in a hover stroller<br>Zim had built. Gir, of course, was in his puppy costume.

"Okay, we're here," said Aiko impatiently. "Can we go play games now?"

"First, let's go over the safety rules again," said Zim. "Remember, don't speak  
>unless spoken to, don't ask the humans for help unless I say so, stay where<br>I can see you ..."

"Okay, Zim, we get it!" snapped Sheen.

Zim nodded. "Very good, my Princess. Okay, you can go play filthy human games  
>now. Gir, go with the children and make sure they stay out of trouble."<p>

"Yes, my master!" Gir replied, saluting smartly.

The four oldest immediately ran off into the arcade area, followed by Gir. Zim stayed  
>at the booth with the smeets. Tark and Aiko took places at two of the video game consoles,<br>while Sheen fooled around with the whack-a-mole game. Ven joined three more children in  
>the ball pit, because he wasn't interested in playing games at the moment.<p>

For the next hour, everyone in the restaurant calmly went about their business, eating  
>their pizza and playing their games. Zim just shook his head in disgust as he continued<br>to observe his surroundings. Suddenly, an ecstatic scream rang out from the arcade,  
>causing everyone to stop what they were doing.<p>

"I did it! I did it!" Aiko was squealing happily. "I hit the high score!"

Several children, including Tark and Sheen, gathered around to see for themselves.  
>Sure enough, Aiko had scored enough points at Raging Road Rampage to beat the<br>high score. Gir was standing in front of the ticket slot, collecting the ribbon of purple  
>tickets that came out.<p>

"Wow, look at that!" said Aiko as she climbed down from the game chair. "I wonder  
>how many tickets I got ."<p>

Tark took Aiko's tickets from Gir and counted them. "There's exactly one hundred  
>and twenty tickets. Way to go, Ai!"<p>

Aiko squealed and clapped her hands while jumping up and down.

"Wow, that's amazing," Sheen remarked. "I only won eighty-one tickets from my game."

"I won eighty-two," said Tark.

"How many tickets did I win?" asked Ven, holding up the ribbon of tickets he'd won from  
>the Hungry Hippo game.<p>

Sheen counted them. "Seventy-three. That's pretty good, Ven."

Aiko picked up her ribbon of tickets and held it up. "What do we do with these tickets,  
>anyway?" she asked.<p>

"You can buy prizes with them!" said Gir. "Come on, I'll show you!"

He led the kids to a counter with several shelves full of stuffed animals and other  
>goodies behind it. A woman in a penguin costume stood behind the counter,<br>exchanging the tickets the children gave her for items from the shelves.

"Hello, how may I help you?" the woman asked nonchalantly when she noticed Gir  
>and the kids standing in front of the counter.<p>

"We'd like to exchange our tickets for prizes," Tark told her.

"That's nice," replied the penguin woman. She gestured toward the shelves behind  
>her. "Choose whatever you like...if you can afford it."<p>

Aiko, having the most tickets, went first. After studying the prizes carefully for a few  
>minutes, she decided on a huge pink and blue stuffed unicorn with a sparkly mane.<p>

"Good choice, honey," remarked the penguin woman. "That'll be one hundred tickets."  
>She took Aiko's tickets and handed her the unicorn. "Okay, who's next?"<p>

Tark and Ven chose model airplanes for seventy tickets each. Sheen took a good long  
>while to decide before finally choosing a small snow globe for sixty-five tickets. The<br>woman took the tickets and handed the kids their prizes.

"There you are," she said. "Now beat it. You're holding up the line."

The kids left the prize counter and walked back to the booth in the restaurant area.  
>Zim and the smeets were waiting there, along with a piping hot pepperoni pizza and<br>six root beer floats.

"Hello, children," said Zim, grinning cheerfully. "I see you've won yourselves some prizes.  
>Where's Gir?"<p>

"He went back to the arcade to play more games," said Ven.

"That's nice, Prince Ventus. Now let's all sit down and eat so we can leave this...horrible  
>house of Earth monsters!" He pointed at the costumed mascots who were standing around<br>table five and singing "Happy Birthday."

The kids sat down at the booth and placed their prizes under the table. Zim passed out  
>slices of pizza and handed each child a glass of root beer float. After a quick check for<br>danger in the area, the Irkens began to eat.

Before leaving the house for Bloaty's, Zim had each of the kids, including the smeets,  
>swallow a pink pill he made that afternoon. Once inside the kids' bodies, the pills dissolved<br>and coated their insides with a layer of protective substance, allowing the kids to eat Earth  
>food without being harmed. That way, the Irkens could eat their pizza in peace, without any<br>strange looks from the humans.

Meanwhile, as Gir returned to the booth with his arms full of prizes, he noticed the smeets'  
>stroller. Sakura and Mariah were still in it, fast asleep, but...<p>

_Where was Max?_

"Master! The little boy baby is gone!"

* * *

><p><strong>*Gasp* Max has disappeared! Oh noes! What's Zim going to do now?<strong>


	10. Are We Doomed Yet?

Zim jumped out of the booth and landed in front of the stroller. As his eyes rested  
>on the empty seat where Max had been, but no longer was, his skin turned a very<br>pale shade of green. He could hear Tallest Azka's warning clearly as it rang through  
>his head.<p>

_"If anything happens to our kids down there, you'll be shipped straight back to Foodcourtia..."_

Azka's stern voice gradually faded into an echo in Zim's mind, until it was replaced by  
>Sizz-Lorr's evil laugh and other disturbing images of Foodcourtia.<p>

_The fast food...the boiling hot grease... the cranky customers... the happy Shloogorgh_  
><em> costume...the horror...!<em>

"NO!" Zim screamed, completely unaware of the strange looks he was getting from  
>the other diners. "I am never going back to Foodcourtia! Never, you hear me? NEVER!"<p>

"Knock it off, Zim!" snapped Tark. He rose from his seat and slapped Zim across the back  
>of his head. "In case you haven't noticed, there are people watching us." He took a deep<br>breath to calm himself before continuing. "Now stop whining about stupid Foodcourtia and  
>help us look for Max! He couldn't have gone too far."<p>

Zim immediately stopped screaming and noticed that everyone in the restaurant was looking  
>at him. He blushed and cleared his throat. "I, um, forgot to take my psychiatric medication<br>today. Heh heh. I am normal!"

The humans continued staring at Zim for a few more minutes, then went back to eating their  
>food. Zim gathered the kids around him and began to discuss searching for Max.<p>

"Maybe we should ask the management for help," Aiko suggested.

Zim shook his head. "I'm sorry, Princess Aiko, but that's too risky. And remember one of the  
>rules I told you: Do not ask the humans for help."<p>

Aiko hung her head. "Oh, sorry about that."

"So, we'll split up and search a different area of the restaurant," Zim explained. "Tark will search  
>the men's room, Sheen the women's room. You, Aiko, will search the arcade. Ven will look under<br>the tables in the dining area. I will take Princesses Sakura and Mariah and search the parking lot."  
>He turned to Gir and motioned for him to come closer. "Gir, see if you can sneak into the kitchen<br>and look for Prince Maxime there."

"Yes, Master!" Gir replied.

Zim nodded. "Alright, let's move out."

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Dib and Gaz were walking home from school after finally finishing the work Ms.<br>Bitters gave them as punishment for taking part in the food fight earlier that day. Dib was  
>surprised that Gaz had waited for him to finish writing on the blackboards instead of going<br>straight home once the cafeteria was cleaned, but he said nothing about it. Gaz, of course,  
>continued playing games on her Game Slave 2.<p>

Just as they were about to walk past Bloaty's Pizza Hog, a strange-looking Chihuahua  
>approached them, holding a slice of pizza in his mouth.<p>

Dib shuddered and stepped back as the Chihuahua came closer. He'd seen that dog  
>before, and was convinced that it was a sign of bad luck.<p>

Gaz put her Game Slave 2 away just long enough to glare at the little dog. "Get lost,  
>you pizza stealing mutt," she growled, "or prepare to face my wrath!"<p>

The dog sat down at Gaz's feet and looked up at her, whimpering. Just as Gaz was  
>about to lose her temper and scream at the dog, Dib poked her in her right arm and pointed<br>at another small figure slowly making its way down the sidewalk. It appeared to be scooting  
>along on its bottom.<p>

"What the heck is that?" Gaz asked.

"I don't know," Dib replied, "but I'm going to take a closer look." He tiptoed quietly toward  
>the scooting figure until he was close enough to get a good look at it.<p>

"Oh, wow. Hey Gaz, come look at this!"

Grumbling about her stupid brother, Gaz walked toward Dib to see what he found. Sitting  
>at Dib's feet was a tiny, violet-eyed Irken. He was wearing a kind of suit that must have<br>been standard baby-wear on Zim's home world.

"So, it's an alien baby," Gaz scoffed. "Big deal. What's so great about that?"

"This fixes everything, Gaz!" said Dib excitedly. He scooped the little smeet off the ground  
>and held him in his arms. "Just wait until the Swollen Eyeball Network sees this. They'll see<br>I was right all along!"

The smeet began to fuss and squirm in Dib's arms. Dib held him out at arm's length and  
>laughed softy as he swiped at the boy's face with his tiny claws.<p>

"He's a feisty little guy, isn't he?" Dib chuckled.

Gaz studied the little Irken carefully. "Well, he is kind of cute," she admitted.

"He may be cute now," Dib reminded her, "but I bet he won't be so cute when he grows up.  
>He <strong>is<strong> a member of Zim's horrible race, after all." He carefully tucked the smeet into his jacket.  
>"Come on, we'd better get home before Dad gets worried and calls the police."<p>

* * *

><p>"What do you mean you can't find the problem?"<p>

Head Communications Officer Zarthab stood before Almighty Tallests Red and Purple,  
>trembling. The Massive's long distance communications system had been offline for<br>almost twelve hours, and the technicians still hadn't figured out the cause of the  
>problem. The Tallests were getting impatient, because until the communications<br>system was working again, they couldn't contact Zim to make sure he wasn't doing  
>anything terrible to their kids.<p>

"Please forgive me, my Tallests," Zarthab apologized. "The other technicians and I  
>are doing our best to find the problem with the communications system and fix it.<br>Could you please just hang in there for a while longer?"

"That's what you said five hours ago, Zarthab," growled Red, eyes glowing with anger.  
>"Five ******* hours ago!" He rose from his seat and stood over the frightened technician,<br>stretching himself to his full height. "Look, I'm trying to hold it together, but it isn't easy -  
>especially when my kids are on a planet several light-years away with the most dangerous<br>and insane defect the Irken Empire has ever known!"

Purple sat next to Red, munching on a corn dog. "He's right, Zarthab," he said in between  
>bites. "Either you get that problem fixed soon, or you go out the air lock and into the nearest<br>sun."

"Yes, my Tallests," Zarthab replied. He bowed down on one knee for a minute, then stood up  
>and left the room.<p>

"Don't you think that was a little harsh?" asked Gem.

"Don't worry, I was just kidding," Purple told her. "Sure, we're mean enough to throw other  
>Irkens out the air lock, but we would never throw them into the sun."<p>

"Not directly, anyway," added Red.

"Talon!" scolded Azka. She knew Red hated it when she called him by his real name, and only  
>did so when he did or said something that hurt or upset her.<p>

"What is it now, Azka?" moaned Red. "Come on, can't you take a little joke?"

"Yeah, you're no fun at all," Purple chimed in.

Azka sighed loudly and rolled her eyes. Red and Purple were the most annoying Irkens she  
>had ever known. But then again, that was one of the many reasons why she and Gem loved<br>them. They were funny, but in an annoying sort of way.

* * *

><p>While Zarthab headed back to the bridge to help with the repairs on the communications system,<br>a cloaked figure hid in the shadows of the hallway, holding a small communication device in his hand.

"Did you de-activate the long distance communications system?" a scratchy voice asked over the comlink.

"I did," the cloaked figure replied. "Now that the Tallests can't contact their children on Earth, we can  
>proceed with our mission."<p>

"Excellent!" said the scratchy voice. "We're on our way to Earth as we speak. Phase Two of Operation  
>Death-To-Irk is now underway."<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Dib now has Max! What's he going to do with him? <strong>

**Are the kids in danger? And who is plotting against the Tallests?**


	11. The Search Continues

Once he and Gaz arrived home, Dib tiptoed quietly up the stairs to his room. He carefully  
>closed the door behind him, then walked over to his bed and gently placed Max down on<br>his pillow. The violet-eyed Irken smeet rolled over on his back and grabbed his tiny feet,  
>giggling and cooing softly.<p>

Dib watched the smeet for a minute, then he eagerly trotted over to his computer and  
>contacted the Swollen Eyeball Network.<p>

A red-eyed, silhouetted figure answered the call. "Agent Shadowfang here," whispered  
>a sinister female voice.<p>

"This is Agent Mothman," Dib replied. "I've got something to show you."

"Oh no, not you again," sighed Shadowfang. "What do you want this time?"

"I've really got something this time," Dib reassured her. "Wait here and I'll go get it."  
>He rushed back to his bed, grabbed Max, and hurried back to the computer.<p>

"This is an alien baby," he announced, holding the squirming, drooling smeet in front of  
>the computer screen. "I found him just outside the Bloaty's Pizza Hog parking lot. I think<br>he's from the same planet as Zim. You remember who Zim is, right?"

"Yeah, he's that so-called alien you keep talking about," mumbled Shadowfang. "So you  
>found an alien baby. What do you want us to do about it?"<p>

Dib twiddled his thumbs, searching his mind for an acceptable answer to the question. Max,  
>meanwhile, began to poke at the keys on the keyboard and blow raspberries at the computer<br>screen. Shadowfang, however, was not amused.

"Agent Mothman, this is no time for games!" she scolded. "Do you want me to speak to Agent  
>Darkbootie about scheduling a time for your presentation, or not?"<p>

Dib quickly snatched Max off his desk and placed him in his lap. "A presentation?" he asked  
>excitedly. "Oh yes, please! You won't regret it this time, I promise!"<p>

"For your safety, you'd better hope not," growled Shadowfang. "And remember, don't forget  
>your evidence this time. Oh, and ask your father to sign your permission slip <strong>before<strong> he leaves  
>for work."<p>

With that, she signed off.

Dib placed Max on the floor and wiped the smeet's saliva off his hand. "In the meantime," he  
>said to himself, "let's see where this little guy's place is in the Irken Empire."<p>

He opened a tab on his computer, bringing up stolen files from Zim's computers. He clicked a  
>page marked "Irken Citizen Database" and was presented with a pop-up box asking for a PAK<br>Identification.

"Now where am I supposed to get a PAK I.D?" Dib wondered. Suddenly, he snapped his fingers.  
>"That's right! Tak's ship! I think I can use the onboard computer to find his I.D."<p>

The boy grabbed Max and dashed down the stairs, out the front door, and into the garage.  
>He rushed toward Tak's ship and stopped in front of it. Still holding Max, he opened a panel<br>on the smeet's PAK. Out shot a thin wire that connected itself to the computer aboard the ship.  
>Dib watched the screen carefully as it began to show numbers, first in Irken, then in English.<p>

"PAK I.D., number 25769422," Dib read aloud. He pulled a slip of paper and a pen out of his  
>pocket and copied the number down. "Got it."<p>

Still carrying Max, Dib rushed back to his bedroom, typed the number into the pop-up box on his  
>computer, and pressed enter. A few minutes later, a picture of Max appeared on the screen, along<br>with some basic information about him. The Irken text was promptly translated into English.

Dib read the translated text. "Irken Prince Maxime, son of Almighty Tallests Purple and Gem,  
>grandson of Tallest Spork. Projected adult height: Five feet, eight inches. Possible future careers:<br>Shows promise as a future Elite commander or Invader, but may also excel in military research."

Dib stared at the innocent-looking smeet on the floor and shuddered. A vision of an older Max  
>assisting in the takeover of another helpless planet appeared in his mind. Just the thought of<br>that sweet little alien baby growing up to become a blood-thirsty killer was enough to make him  
>sick.<p>

"So, he's the son of one of Zim's leaders," Dib said to himself. "Well then, now I know exactly  
>how to get Zim right where I want him." An evil smirk crossed his face. "He'll definitely have to<br>stop all his plans now, or face some terrible pain!"

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Zim, Gir, and the kids reported the results of their searches on their way back to<br>Zim's base.

"Did you find Max?" Sheen asked Tark. "He wasn't in the women's room."

Tark shook his head. "I couldn't find him either."

Aiko, Ven, and Gir gave the same answer: Max wasn't hiding in the places where they'd  
>looked. And judging by the nervous look on Zim's face, his search, too, had failed.<p>

"The Tallests will never forgive me for this!" the defective Irken whispered to himself. "I  
>told them I would look after their children, and now one of them is lost on this Irk-forsaken<br>rock!" He dropped down on his knees and buried his face in his hands, moaning out loud.  
>"It's back to Foodcourtia and Sizz-Lorr with me! Nooooooooo!"<p>

Tark and Sheen exchanged digusted looks and shook their heads.

"Oh, stop being such a drama queen, Zim," growled Tark. "Max hasn't even learned to  
>walk yet, so he must still be around here somewhere."<p>

Zim pulled himself off the sidewalk. "You're right, Prince Tarquin," he said matter-of-factly.  
>"I have a job to do. I must not lose sight of the bigger mission!" He looked around and<br>noticed that he and his companions had arrived at his base.

"Gir, take Aiko, Ventus, and the smeets and go inside," he commanded. "I'm taking  
>Tarquin and Sheen and continuing my search for Maxime in the Voot cruiser. Stay inside<br>until I get back."

"Yes, sir!" Gir replied. He turned to Aiko and Ven and added, "Come on, let's go inside  
>and play a game."<p>

Once inside the house, the Irkens de-activated their disguises. Aiko and Ven took Sakura  
>and Mariah out of the hover stroller and followed Gir into the living room. Zim took Tark<br>and Sheen with him and ran upstairs to the attic, where he kept his Voot cruiser.

"Do either of you have anything that may have some of Maxime's genetic material on it?"  
>he asked the two younger Irkens.<p>

"I don't have anything," Tark replied.

"Me, either," Sheen added, "but I do remember that he was drooling on the left sleeve  
>of your uniform earlier today."<p>

Zim held up his left arm and examined his sleeve. Sure enough, the stain from Max's saliva  
>was still there. He quickly thrust the stain under a scanner in the Voot's cockpit and held it<br>there for a few minutes, until a dinging noise told him the scan was finished.

"What was that for?" Tark asked.

"I made a new tracking device for my Voot last week," Zim explained. "This device is programmed  
>to track someone using their genetic signature." He pointed to a small screen on the Voot's control<br>panel. It displayed a picture of Max with a rotating DNA model next to it. "The device now recognizes  
>Max's genetic signature, so we can use it to find him."<p>

"Wow, that's pretty nifty," Sheen remarked.

"Yes, so it is, Princess Sheen," Zim replied proudly. "Now, both of you, into the cruiser. Our search  
>starts now."<p>

Tark and Sheen climbed into the back seats of the Voot and buckled their seat belts. After a quick  
>check to make sure the engine was working properly, Zim climbed into the pilot's seat and started<br>the engine. The doors on the roof swung wide open, allowing the cruiser to take off into the starry  
>night sky and zoom above the city.<p>

* * *

><p>Three cloaked figures hid in the shadows of a nearby garage, watching as Zim's ship left his<br>base. One of the figures pulled a communications device out of a bag he was carrying and  
>pressed the "contact" button.<p>

"This is Commander Jank," he whispered into the mouthpiece of the device. "The baby-sitter  
>has left his base. We are ready to begin the kidnapping."<p>

"Excellent," replied the voice on the other side. "Keep up the good work, Jank."

"Thank you, Captain. Jank out."

Jank signed off, leaving the other speaker sitting in a dark room aboard a ship floating  
>several miles above the Earth.<p>

"Everything is going as planned," a shrouded female figure said to herself. "Revenge will be  
>ours for the taking. It's only a matter of time before the 'mighty' Irken Empire is brought to<br>its knees. They will wish they never even heard of the Centauri!"


	12. Saving Max

An Irken Voot cruiser zoomed high over the city, completely unnoticed by human eyes.  
>In the pilot's seat, Zim stared out the windshield, a determined look on his face. This<br>was no time for games; he had a job to do. Prince Maxime was out there somewhere,  
>and he was going to find him.<p>

"Stupid filthy ball of dirt," the Irken muttered under his breath. "Do you seriously think  
>you can hide my Tallest's son from me forever?" His eyes narrowed into thin, dark pink<br>slits. "Well think again, because you can hide nothing from the eyes of Zim!"

In the back seat, Sheen gazed anxiously out the window, worried about her baby  
>brother. Tark gently placed his hand on her shoulder and gave her a comforting look.<p>

"He'll be okay," he said. "He was always wandering off and getting lost back on the  
>Massive, remember?"<p>

"Yes, but this time he's lost on an unfamiliar planet," Sheen reminded him. "The chances  
>of finding him alive and unharmed out here are probably slim to none." Tears formed in<br>her eyes and started to spill down her cheeks. "I should have watched him more carefully.  
>I'm a failure!" She buried her face in her hands and continued to cry.<p>

"Stop being so pessimistic, Sheen," Tark said sternly. "Remember what our parents told us  
>right before we left?" Sheen stopped crying and looked at him. "The younger kids are counting<br>on us, and we need to be strong for them." He took her hand in his own and gazed into her  
>misty eyes. "Keep it together, for Max. For all of us."<p>

Sheen wiped the remaining tears from her eyes and nodded. "Alright," she whispered softly.  
>"I can do this."<p>

Tark nodded back. "I know you can. You are the child of an Almighty Tallest, after all."

"Yeah, but so are you," Sheen replied, giggling a little. "Anyone could tell just by looking at you,  
>or hearing you speak."<p>

Tark blushed and ran his hand down the back of his head, laughing softly. He was always getting  
>comments about how much he looked like his father back on Irk.<p>

Suddenly, an alarm went off, causing all three Irkens aboard the Voot to jump out of their seats.

"Did you find Max yet?" Tark asked.

Zim nodded. "I have the coordinates for his current location. Now let's see where this place is."  
>He pressed a button on the control panel, and a picture of a big grey house popped up.<p>

"I should have guessed," Zim growled. "It's the Dib-human's house!"

"Oh no, not him again!" moaned Sheen. She gently placed her hand on the bologna rash on  
>her forehead. The swelling was gone by now, but there was still some pink in the area.<p>

"If he's done anything to Max, I'll pound him into mush," hissed Tark.

Zim landed the Voot Cruiser behind a big tree growing in the yard next door to Dib's house.  
>He handed Tark and Sheen their holographic disguises, then he put on his own disguise.<br>Once that was done, the Irkens climbed out of the Voot and tiptoed quietly over to Dib's  
>front door.<p>

"The Dib-worm and his family are most likely asleep by now, so we'll have to keep quiet,"  
>Zim explained. "Once inside the house, we'll search every floor in the house for Max.<br>When we find him, we'll grab him and hurry back to the Voot immediately. And remember,  
>do not touch anything except Max. Got it?"<p>

Tark and Sheen both nodded.

"Okay, let's get this over with." Zim sucked in his breath and reached for the door knob.  
>Wincing and moaning, he slowly turned the knob and opened the door.<p>

_So far, so good,_ he thought.

The three Irkens walked into Dib's living room, being careful not to make any sudden  
>noise. Zim looked around the room for any sign of Dib, Gaz, or their father. After deciding<br>that the coast was clear, he tiptoed toward the staircase and motioned for Tark and  
>Sheen to follow him.<p>

"What now?" Sheen whispered.

"I'll start by searching the basement," Zim replied. "Tarquin will stay down here and  
>search this floor, and you will search upstairs. If one of us finds Max, they will take<br>him and come back to this room to wait for the rest of us. If you see any humans  
>coming, hide immediately. Got it?"<p>

"Got it," Tark and Sheen whispered back.

"Okay then, let's go."

Zim headed for the staircase leading to the basement, while Tark walked into the  
>kitchen. Sheen stared nervously up the staircase leading to the second floor. She<br>took a deep breath to calm herself, then slowly began her climb up the stairs. By  
>the time she arrived at the top, her heart was racing.<p>

_Now, which room should I search first?_ she thought. She looked from left to right  
>several times before finally deciding on Gaz's room. She crept slowly toward the<br>door and gently nudged it open with her foot. She stood in the doorway for a few  
>minutes, then proceeded into the room.<p>

Gaz was asleep and completely unaware of the intrusion. Sheen watched her carefully  
>as she searched the room for Max, in case she suddenly woke up. Every once in a while,<br>the scary human girl would mumble something in her sleep, but she did not open her  
>eyes.<p>

"Max, are you there?" Sheen whispered as she looked under Gaz's bed. But the only  
>things she found there were a stuffed pig and three gum wrappers. The Irken girl<br>pulled herself to her feet and was about to check Gaz's closet when a sudden snarl  
>from Gaz made her jump.<p>

"Dib, if you touch that," the human girl growled in her sleep, "I'll feed you to a crocodile!"  
>She tossed and turned a few times, but remained asleep.<p>

"Okay, I'd better get out of here before she wakes up," Sheen said to herself. "I'm pretty  
>sure Max isn't in here, anyway."<p>

She quickly tiptoed out of Gaz's room and closed the door behind her. Before she could  
>decide which room to search next, she heard the unmistakable sound of Max fussing,<br>followed by Dib's voice trying to shush him. Sheen sighed in relief, happy to know her  
>little brother was alright.<p>

_But the Dib-boy is still awake,_ she thought. _There's a good chance he'll catch me and do  
>who-knows-what to me.<em> She glanced nervously down the hall toward Dib's bedroom  
>door. <em>Oh well, it's a chance I'll have to take. My little brother's in trouble, and I've got to<br>help him._

She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and proceeded down the hall toward  
>Dib's room.<p>

_Hang on, Max, I'm coming!_

* * *

><p>Dib sat on his bed, holding a fussy Max in his arms. He was trying to get the smeet to<br>go to sleep, but the tiny Irken wouldn't stand for it. He kicked and squirmed and swiped  
>at the human boy's face with his tiny but sharp claws. Dib wasn't sure how much more<br>of this he could take.

"Shhhh, be quiet," he whispered anxiously. "My sister is trying to sleep, and she'll be  
>very angry if you wake her up."<p>

Max stopped his fussing and looked up at the human boy who held him, blinking  
>innocently. He clenched his left hand into a fist and stuck it in his mouth. After<br>sucking on it for a while, he pulled it out again and wiped it on Dib's shirt.

"Ugh!" Dib groaned. "This is my favourite shirt!" He placed Max back on the bed  
>and turned his attention to his computer. He was expecting a call from the Swollen<br>Eyeball Network about a time for his latest presentation.

_When are they going to call back?_ he thought. _It's getting late..._

Suddenly, a beeping sound came from Dib's computer.

"That must be them!" Dib jumped off his bed and ran over to his computer. Grinning  
>with excitement, he typed in his Swollen Eyeball password and answered the call.<br>Within moments, Agent Darkbootie appeared on the screen.

"Greetings, Agent Mothman," he said. "Agent Shadowfang told me you have  
>something you wish to show us." His red eyes narrowed into tiny slits. "This<br>better not be another joke!"

"Trust me, it isn't a joke," Dib replied. "I've definitely got something this time!  
>You've just got to believe me!"<p>

Darkbootie sighed loudly. "Alright, Mothman, let's hurry up and get this over  
>with. Show me your latest so-called evidence."<p>

Squealing with glee, Dib scuttled back to his bed to get Max. He held out his  
>arms to pick up the smeet...only to find nothing there but his pillow.<p>

_What...?_ Dib blinked a few times and stared in disbelief at his empty bed. He  
>dropped down on all fours and searched all over his room for Max, but there<br>was no sign of the little Irken.

"Where did he go?" Dib wondered aloud, when the sound of feet hurrying  
>down the stairs reached his ears. <em>Zim!<em> The boy narrowed his eyes and clenched  
>both his hands into fists.<p>

"Well, Agent Mothman?" growled Darkbootie.

Dib stared nervously at the computer. "I...uh...I'll have to call you back later."  
>He signed off and dashed out of his room and down the stairs, just in time to<br>see Zim, Tark, and Sheen hurrying out the door with Max.

"No!" The boy sprinted after the Irkens, but they were too fast for him. Zim  
>jumped into the cockpit aboard his Voot and started the engine, while Tark,<br>Sheen, and Max scrambled into the back seat. But just as the Voot started to  
>lift off, there was a loud "<strong>THUD!<strong>" from the roof of the alien spaceship. Within  
>seconds, Dib appeared at the top of the windshield and started banging on it<br>with his fists.

"Give me back my evidence, Zim!"

"I think not, Dib-worm!" Zim hissed. "I promised my Tallests that I would look  
>after their children on this scummy space rock, so that's what I'm going to do!"<br>He pressed a big green button on the control panel. "Now, prepare for your  
>smelly demise of...SMELL!"<p>

The button activated a springboard at the upper front of the Voot, flinging Dib  
>away from the ship. The boy screamed as he sailed through the air toward the<br>city cesspool.

"Well, that was pretty grim to watch," Sheen remarked as she, Tark, and Max  
>watched Dib land in the smelly pit of toxic waste. Max giggled and clapped his<br>tiny hands.

"Yeah, we've got to try that with the service drones sometime," chuckled Tark.

* * *

><p>Everything was quiet when the Irkens arrived back at Zim's house. As soon as<br>the Voot had landed in its hangar in the attic, its pilot and passengers scrambled  
>out and rushed downstairs to the living room to check on Gir and the others.<p>

"Ah, sweet victory for Zim!" Zim sighed happily. "Another job well done. It's so  
>good to be me, good to be Zim!"<p>

"Like we didn't help, too?" sneered Tark, rolling his eyes.

Sheen didn't say anything. She just stood where she was, surveying the room in  
>front of her. When Tark and Zim joined her and Max at the entrance to the living<br>room, they, too, fell silent.

The living room was trashed, as if a struggle had taken place there. Popcorn was  
>strewn across the floor, laser burns were on the walls, and some of the furniture<br>was damaged. There was no sign of Gir, Aiko, Ven, or the baby girls.

However, the worst part of all was taped to the television screen.

It was a picture of an Irken lying on the floor, bleeding to death. A giant horse-shoe  
>was positioned directly above the dying Irken.<p>

"Guys, I think we've been robbed," Sheen said softly.

Tark sprinted through the living room into the kitchen, calling his brother's and sisters'  
>names. Sheen seated herself on the couch and placed Max by her feet on the floor. Zim<br>marched up to the television and snatched the dying Irken picture off the screen. As he  
>stared at the grim picture, his face began to darken dramatically.<p>

"Whoever did this shall soon suffer the wrath of Zim!" he growled.

* * *

><p><strong>Max has been rescued, but where are the other kids? Who has done this horrible <strong>  
><strong>thing? And what is that picture of a dying Irken supposed to mean? <strong>


	13. Death Threats

**Please forgive me for not updating in a while. I was struggling with writer's block. (Curse you, **  
><strong>writer's block! I hate you!) <strong>  
><strong>Anyway, here's the next chapter. Things are really getting ugly now...<strong>

* * *

><p>Tallest Red lay in his big, soft bed and stared at the ceiling. Every time he tried to close his eyes,<br>they just flew open again two seconds later. The poor Irken leader just couldn't sleep, not with  
>images of his children suffering at the hands of an insane defect like Zim clouding his mind.<p>

_Maybe sending the kids to Zim wasn't such a good idea after all,_ he thought. _I just wanted to get them  
>out of my antennae for a little while ... but<em> _how was I supposed to know the Massive's long-range  
>communications system would stop working...? Wait a minute...!<em>

Sighing heavily, Red rose out of bed for what had to be the thousandth time that night. He was  
>careful not to disturb Azka, who slept on the other side of the bed, her favourite pillow pressed<br>against her cheek.

_I wonder if they've fixed the system yet. Maybe I'll go check..._

Clad in his favourite red and yellow bathrobe, Red walked down the hallway toward his and  
>Purple's favourite private lounge. As he entered the room, he found Purple sitting on the couch,<br>drinking peppermint tea from a small china teacup.

"You can't sleep either, huh?" Red remarked.

Purple shook his head. "Yeah, Gem and I really miss the kids. It's just not the same without  
>them around." He took another sip of tea and glanced around the room until his eyes rested<br>on the intercom. "I wonder if Zarthab got the communications system working again..."

"Yeah, I'm wondering the same thing," said Red as he, too, stared at the intercom. _Come on,  
>Zarthab, what's taking you so long?<em>

Purple placed his teacup on the coffee table in front of him. "Maybe we should send someone  
>to Earth to check on the kids," he suggested. "I know it sounds like too much trouble, but with<br>the long-range communications offline, we don't really have a choice."

Red walked further into the louge and seated himself next to Purple on the couch. "We'll send  
>someone in the morning," he said. "Meanwhile, we'd best be on our guard. I think someone is<br>plotting against us."

Purple cocked his head to one side and gave Red a puzzled look. "What makes you say that?"

"I didn't like the way the communications system stopped working so suddenly," replied Red. "It  
>was working just fine yesterday, remember? There were no signs that it needed repair."<p>

Purple nodded. "So, you're saying the way it stopped working without any warning is a possible  
>sign of trouble or even danger?"<p>

"Exactly. The only other time I remember this happening was when that alien spy invaded the  
>Massive and sabotaged our computers."<p>

Purple wrapped his arms around himself and shuddered, remembering that awful day. An intruder  
>had tried to hack into the Massive's main computer and activate the self-destruct sequence. Luckily,<br>he was caught before he could complete his goal, but it was still a close call.

"Who do you think is plotting against us?" Purple asked.

Red just shrugged. "I don't know. But at least they don't know where our kids are, so the kids  
>should be safe, for now."<p>

"Yeah, if you call living with Zim safe," scoffed Purple, rolling his eyes.

Red covered his mouth and snickered, being careful not to laugh too loud. Azka and Gem would  
>be furious if he woke them up just because of a stupid joke.<p>

Suddenly, a jaunty beep came from the intercom on the other side of the room. Red pulled himself  
>off the couch, walked across the room to the intercom, and answered the call.<p>

"Tallest Red here, what do you need?"

"It's Officer Zarthab, my Tallest. Do you think you and Tallest Purple could come up to the bridge?  
>There's something I think you should see."<p>

"Sure thing, Zar. We're on our way."

* * *

><p>Within minutes of receiving the call, Red and Purple were dressed in their Tallest armour and hastily<br>making their way up to the bridge. When they arrived, they found at least half of the Massive's crew  
>gathered around the control panels. Some of them looked relieved, while others looked pretty worried.<p>

Head Communications Officer Zarthab stepped forward to greet his leaders. "Thank you for coming,  
>my Tallests," he said. "In case you're wondering why I called you so late, I have good news and bad<br>news." He rubbed his black-gloved palms together. "I assume you'll want to hear the good news first."

"Yes, we would," Red replied.

Zarthab nodded and continued. "Okay, the good news is we've found the source of our problem with  
>the long-range communications system. There was a virus infecting the communications network, but<br>I don't think it had a chance to spread to the rest of the Massive's computers by the time we found it."  
>He glanced at the glowing blue screen behind him, then turned back to the Tallests. "We've got a virus<br>eradication program in place now. The long-range communications should be virus-free and back online  
>in a few hours."<p>

Red's eyes narrowed in disgust. "What kind of parasite-infested vandal would dare do such a thing?"  
>he snarled. "Do they seriously think they have a chance against the almighty Irken Armada?"<p>

Purple was angry about the virus, too, but he tried to stay calm. "Good work, Zarthab," he said,  
>nodding hastily. "Now, what's the bad news?"<p>

Zarthab turned to a lavender-eyed technician standing a few feet behind him and motioned for her  
>to come forward, which she did.<p>

"My Tallests," the female Irken said softly, "I found this taped to the main communications screen.  
>I don't know who put it there, but I thought I'd better show it to you."<p>

She held up a small red flag emblazoned with the same image Zim found in his living room - a bleeding  
>Irken surrounded by a giant horse-shoe. Red snatched the flag out of the technician's hand and held it<br>out at arm's length so he and Purple could both see the disturbing image. As the two Irken leaders  
>studied the flag and its threatening symbol, Purple noticed something else.<p>

"What's that, written there?" He pointed to a message written directly beneath the dying Irken. Red  
>held the flag closer to his face and squinted his eyes until he could finally make out the words:<p>

_Just as you have taken what was most precious to me, so shall I take what is most precious to you,_  
><em>and the name of Vash shall forever strike fear into your heart. <em>

Red felt a mixture of fear and anger rise within him. Someone was actually threatening not only him  
>but also his family - and possibly Purple and his family, too. His right eye twitched as his lips curled<br>back into a snarl. Never in his reign as Tallest had he been threatented so blatantly. The Tallest's  
>grip on the flag tightened until his claws tore through the silky fabric. The sound of the cloth ripping<br>caused every other Irken in the room, including Purple, to shudder. They had never seen Tallest  
>Red so angry before.<p>

"Red, are you all right?" Purple asked, placing a trembling hand on his friend's shoulder. "What's  
>wrong?"<p>

Red immediately snapped out of his inner rage. Panting heavily, he stared at the torn flag in his  
>hands, hoping this would all be just a dream. But the flag and its message were real, as were the<br>strange looks he was getting from Purple and the technicians.

"I'm fine, Pur," Red assured his worried co-leader. Turning to Zarthab, he ordered, "Get a ship ready.  
>I'm going to Earth to check on my kids."<p>

Zarthab stood up straight and saluted. "Yes, sir!"

_I will find the monster who left this threat!_ Red thought grimly. _Even if I have to search all of space's  
>darkest corners to hunt them down, I will<em> _find_ _them and give them a piece of my mind!_

* * *

><p>Zim sighed in frustration as he searched through the images captured by his base's security<br>cameras over the last four hours. He could not find any clear suggestion as to who took Aiko,  
>Ven, Gir, and the baby girls. Every once in a while, a cloaked figure would appear onscreen,<br>but every time Zim tried to zoom in to get a better look, the screen went black.

Tark, Sheen, and Max stood at the entrance to the computer room, watching Zim's search  
>through the security footage with worried eyes. Sheen pulled the dying Irken picture Zim<br>had found out of her PAK and looked at it. She sucked in her breath and bit her lip.

"Wow, someone must really be out to get us," she whispered softly. "I wonder why."

"Whoever they are, they sure are good at covering their tracks," Tark remarked, gesturing  
>toward the malfunctioning computer screen. "They didn't even leave any fingerprints or footprints,<br>or any other clues pointing to their identity. All they left was this picture." He carefully touched  
>the picture with his fingertips. "But who would hate us enough to leave such a blatant death<br>threat as this?"

Zim finally gave up on his fruitless search and joined Tark and Sheen at the door. "The kidnapper  
>must have infected my security system with a sort of virus," he growled, slamming his fist into the<br>palm of his other hand. "Whoever they are, they've got some nerve, breaking into the house of  
>Zim!" He caught sight of the picture the kids were holding.<p>

"May I see that?"

Sheen handed the picture to Zim, who immediately began inspecting it closely. After two minutes  
>of inspection, Zim slammed his finger on the giant horse-shoe positioned over the dying Irken.<p>

"I should have known!" he exclaimed. "That horse-shoe is a dead giveaway!"

"What do you mean?" asked Tark.

"I think I know who might have kidnapped the children and Gir," Zim said proudly. "Now tell me,  
>my prince and princess: what alien species that we know of is represented by a giant horse-shoe?"<p>

Sheen took a good look at the horseshoe. "I think I see where you're getting at, Zim. That horseshoe  
>represents the Centauri."<p>

"Very good, Princess Sheen," Zim said proudly. "Your father and uncle have taught you well, I see."

"But that doesn't make any sense," said Tark. "The Centauri may be one of our biggest enemies,  
>but they've never threatened us like this before. And they would certainly never kidnap smeets.<br>That just isn't like them."

"You're right, Prince Tarquin. But what if there is someone in their midst who does things that other  
>Centauri would never do?" Zim looked at the picture again. "This image must be the logo for an anti-<br>Irken resistance group - lead by a Centauri, no doubt." He scratched his chin thoughtfully. "I wonder  
>if ... That's it!"<p>

Still holding the picture, Zim rushed back to his computer and jumped into the swivel chair in front of  
>the screen.<p>

"What are you doing?" Sheen called after him.

"I think I might know someone who can help us," Zim replied. "He knows of several resistance  
>groups fighting against the Irken Empire. Maybe he can tell us which group this picture represents."<p>

Sheen picked up Max and held him close, while Tark closed his eyes and leaned against the wall.

_I sure hope that crazy defect knows what he's doing,_ he thought.


	14. Captain Vash

The blue-eyed Centauri mare blinked her eyes slowly as she gazed out the window  
>of her dimly lit bedroom. The stars seemed to taunt her as they drifted by, as if daring<br>her to catch them. Sighing with impatience, she tucked a wisp of her coal-black mane  
>behind her left ear and shifted her gaze toward the door.<p>

_What's taking him so long?_ she thought, tapping her hoof against the floor. _He should_  
><em>have called back by now, saying he has the little Irken brats and is bringing them to me!<em>  
><em>If he doesn't call me soon, I'll cut off his sorry -<em>

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the loud beep coming from the intercom  
>next to her wardrobe. Muttering random curses under her breath, the angry Centauri<br>mare stalked to the other side of her room and pushed the answering button.

"Captain Vash here, what do you want?" she asked, trying to keep a calm tone of  
>voice despite her anger.<p>

"This is Lieutenant Sloor speaking," answered a male voice on the other end of the  
>intercom. "I just wanted to let you know that Commander Jank and his team have<br>returned with the royal Irken children. We're bringing them to the conference room  
>on Deck B as we speak."<p>

Captain Vash grinned evilly at the news. "Excellent. I'll be down in about six minutes  
>to see for myself and congratulate Jank on a job well done. In the meantime, tell the<br>pilot to set a course for Planet Igneosa. It's time to move on to Phase Three."

"Yes, ma'am. Sloor out."

As soon as the transmission ended, Vash walked over to the large vanity positioned  
>directly across the room from her bed. A sinister smirk crossed her vixen-like face as<br>she gazed into the silver-framed mirror.

"Now that I have the Almighty Tallests' children, they will have no choice but to surrender!"  
>she cackled, rubbing her hands together with sadistic glee. "Because if they don't, I will make<br>them suffer - just like they did to me twenty years ago."

Her eyes fell upon a small holographic image of a happy Centauri family. Tears threatened to  
>escape from her eyes, but she fought them back.<p>

_Rest in peace, my dear ones, for soon you shall be avenged!_

* * *

><p>Aiko and Ven stood on a raised platform before a small group of various aliens, their hands<br>bound in cuffs behind their backs. Two Vortian guards stood behind the two young Irkens.  
>One held a de-activated Gir, while the other held Sakura and Mariah, who were both tired<br>and sleepy-eyed from the sedative the kidnappers gave them to keep them quiet.

The other aliens in the room whispered and chattered among themselves, but fell silent  
>when an automatic door at the back of the room sundenly flew open. A thin black and<br>grey Centauri mare entered the room and walked swifly toward the front of the crowd.  
>As she stepped on to the platform, her crew stood up straight and saluted her.<p>

Obviously, she was the leader of this group.

"Greetings, my loyal followers," she said in a smooth tone of voice that reminded Aiko of  
>her father. "As you probably already know, Operation Death-To-Irk is going well so far. In<br>fact, standing before us is the next step toward the downfall of the Irken Empire." She  
>gestured toward Aiko, Ven, and the smeets. "Thanks to Commander Jank, we now have<br>the Tallests' children. Revenge against the Irken Empire is now ours for -"

Suddenly, the Centauri mare fell silent, as if she'd just realized something. She turned  
>toward her frightened prisoners and counted them, narrowing her eyes in anger. Turning<br>again to face her crew, her eyes drifted around the room until they rested upon a nervous,  
>purple-eyed Irken.<p>

"Commander Jank, could you come here, please?" she asked sweetly.

Jank scuttled toward the front of the room and stepped on to the platform to stand  
>before his leader.<p>

"Yes, Captain Vash?"

Vash reached out and grabbed Jank's shoulder, pulling him closer.

"Jank, have I ever told you how amazing you were?" she purred. "Have I ever told you  
>how much I admired your incredible skill and talent?"<p>

Jank blushed and chuckled at his captain's comment. "Well, I really hate to brag, Captain -"

Before he could finish, Vash grabbed him by the front of his uniform and yanked him off  
>the floor, shaking him like a rat.<p>

"You idiot!" she screamed. "I told you to bring me all the royal Irken children! All seven  
>of them! Why are there three missing?"<p>

"Please forgive me, Captain," Jank stuttered. Several drops of sweat ran down his neck  
>and soaked his uniform. "I promise you, we could only find four children in that house. The<br>other three were nowhere to be found."

Vash's lips cured back into a snarl, revealing her shiny white teeth. "Then I suggest you  
>return to that pitiful excuse for a planet and FIND THEM!" She threw Jank to the floor and<br>pointed toward the door leading to the ship's hangar. "GO! NOW!"

Jank scrambled to his feet and hurried out the door. As he left the room, he felt Vash's cold,  
>unforgiving eyes burn into his back. He just knew this was his last chance. If he messed up<br>again, Vash would not hesitate to kill him.

After Jank left, Vash turned to one of the Vortians standing behind Aiko and Ven.

"Lieutenant Sloor, I think our guests would like to see their chambers now," she said. "The poor  
>little things must be exausted after their trip."<p>

She reached out to stroke Sakura's cheek, but Ven intervened and slapped her arm away  
>before she could touch his baby sister.<p>

"Just you wait until my dad gets here!" he growled. "When he does, he's gonna make you  
>hurt so bad!"<p>

Vash lowered herself toward the floor until she and Ven made eye contact. "I don't think so,  
>young man," she growled. "It just so happens I've planned for this moment ever since my<br>escape from Diamonia. If a snack-loving slob like Almighty Tallest Red thinks he has the brains  
>to out-fox me and ruin my years of careful planning, he is badly mistaken."<p>

Vash stood up staight again and turned her attention back to Sloor. She looked him straight  
>in the eye and cleared her throat, reminding him of her order to take the kids to her guest-<br>chamber.

"Yes, ma'am," Sloor replied, nodding hastily. He grabbed Aiko's arm and dragged her out of  
>the room, while his companion did the same with Ven. A third Vortian followed closely behind<br>the other two, carrying Gir and the babies.

As she was led away down the hall, Aiko turned her head to look at her brother.

"I'm scared," she whispered. "I hope Tark, Sheen, and Max are alright."

Ven nodded in reply. "Yeah, me too," he whispered back.

* * *

><p>Zim narrowed his eyes and glanced suspiciously at the screen in front of him. The<br>computer was taking longer than usual to open up a communication line and make  
>a connection. It seemed that the virus the kidnappers left behind had affected more<br>than just the base's security system. Sighing heavily, Zim turned to face Tark and  
>Sheen, who stood right behind him.<p>

"This is going to take a while," he said lamely. "In the meantime, is there anything  
>else I can do for you two? Like fix you a snack or something?"<p>

"No, I'm fine for now," replied Tark.

"Same here," added Sheen.

"Well, okay then," said Zim. "Why don't we check on Max now?"

The three Irkens walked quietly toward the makeshift crib Zim had recently set up  
>in the lab so they could watch Max while they worked. The little smeet was sleeping<br>in the center of the crib, curled up like a kitten. Tark's and Sheen's eyes softened  
>as they stared at the sleeping baby, while Zim just scratched himself behind the<br>antennae. A sentimental expression started to cross his face.

Tark noticed the tender look on Zim's face immediately. "He's cute when he's sleeping,  
>isn't he?" he asked sheepishly.<p>

"Huh?" The smile on Zim's face quickly vanished. "Um, I was just..."

"I saw that cutesy look on your face, Zim," Tark taunted. "Don't deny it."

Zim placed his hands on his hips and glared at Tark. "You saw nothing, Prince Tarquin.  
>I am an Invader, and Invaders care for no one. Especially not smeets!"<p>

Tark folded his arms across his chest. "Yeah, right," he sneered.

"Quiet, you two, or you'll wake him up," whispered Sheen, holding her index finger to  
>her lips. Max stirred a few times in his crib, but remained fast asleep while the three<br>older Irkens continued to watch him.

Several minutes later, a soft beeping sound came from the computer, indicating that  
>the communication line had finally been opened. Zim immediately scampered toward<br>the main console to answer the call, leaving Tark and Sheen still standing by Max's  
>crib.<p>

However, just as Zim was about to answer the call, the doorbell rang. The sudden sound  
>woke Max from his nap. Angry about having his peaceful sleep disturbed, the smeet began<br>to cry. Groaning and rolling her eyes, Sheen reached into the crib and picked up her fussing  
>baby brother.<p>

"Could you get the door, Tark?" she asked over Max's wails. "It's probably that Dib-guy  
>again, trying to take Max back!"<p>

Tark nodded. "I'm on it!" He dashed into the elevator and zoomed up toward the ground  
>floor. When he arrived in the kitchen, he jumped out of the toilet and scrambled toward<br>the front door. As he grabbed the knob and prepared to open the door, he deployed his  
>metal spider-legs from his PAK.<p>

_I'll teach him to mess with the mighty Irken race!_

With that, Tark flung the door wide open and raised his sharpest spider-leg high above  
>his head, ready to attack.<p>

"Take this, you big-headed Earth monkey!" he cried.

Unfortunately, the person at the door was not Dib.

"Tark, what in Tallest Serta's name are you trying to do?"

Tark slowly lowered his spider-leg and looked up at the person standing in front of him.

"Dad?"


	15. Disgrace

**Several light-years away on the Irken shipyard planet Kell...**

Foreman Fiske yawned as he proceeded down the corridors of the huge Irken  
>shipyard where he worked. He shook his head and blinked his eyes quickly,<br>trying to rid himself of any remaining fatigue. It was important that he stay  
>awake and alert while carrying out his daily inspections duty. Otherwise, he<br>would accidentally miss something that needed repair, and the overseer in  
>charge of the shipyard would be very angry.<p>

As he arrived at his first station, the medium-tall Centauri stallion drew out a  
>pen from behind his right ear and placed its tip against the surface of his computerized<br>monitor tablet. His dull brown eyes swept over the various machinery, searching for  
>anything that might need fixing.<p>

"Okay, let's see," he mumbled as he looked from the machinery to his checklist,  
>then back to the machinery again. "Conveyor belt eighteen, fine. Welding lasers<br>one through six, fine. Ventilation shaft seven, fine..."

The mechanics watched the foreman with worried eyes, then sighed in relief when  
>he decided that nothing was wrong with this section of the shipyard.<p>

"Good work, men, keep it up," said Fiske, nodding hastily as he checked off items  
>and added notes on his inspections checklist.<p>

One of the mechanics, a small Vortian female, nervously stepped forward. "Um,  
>Mr. Foreman, sir, did you remember to ask Overseer Kora about -?"<p>

Fiske looked up from his checklist and turned to face the mechanic. "Yes, I did,  
>Sami," he said softly. "I'm sorry, but your request for time off from work was<br>denied."

Sami's eyes filled with tears. "B-but sir, my baby is at home sick, and sh-she  
>needs me..."<p>

"I tried to reason with her, Sami," Fiske explained, "but she wouldn't listen. She  
>just kept talking about how we were behind schedule and we couldn't afford any<br>more setbacks." He gently placed his hand on Sami's shoulder. "Believe me, I feel  
>just as bad about this as you do. You'd best get back to work now."<p>

Sami reluctantly returned to her post, sniffling and wiping tears from her eyes.  
>Fiske gave her one last sympathetic glance, then moved on to his next station.<p>

_Poor kid,_ he thought. _Her family needs her at home, but the overseer won't let her go.  
>Why can't she listen to reason? If only...<em>

A sudden beep from his tablet jolted Fiske from his thoughts. The Centauri rolled  
>his eyes and grumbled as he opened his communications page to see who was<br>trying to contact him.

"Probably Overseer Kora demanding an explanation for our tardiness," he muttered  
>grimly as he reluctantly pressed the "answer" button.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Back on Earth...<strong>

Zim seated himself in front of his computer and waited for his communications line  
>with Planet Kell to open. Sheen stood a few feet behind him, holding a now quiet<br>Max in her arms.

"Are you sure this guy can help us identify the kidnappers?" she asked skeptically.

"Of course he can help us, my Princess," Zim replied confidently. "Fiske is an old  
>friend of mine, and he has information on at least thirty different anti-Irken rebel<br>groups. I'm pretty sure he knows which one this frightening logo belongs to."

After three minutes of static, a brown and black Centauri stallion appeared onscreen.  
>Judging by the scowl on his face, he was obviously annoyed.<p>

"What do you want now?" he demanded. When he saw who the caller was, however,  
>his scowl immediately vanished. "Oh, hey Zim. I thought you were Overseer Kora<br>calling to complain about our lousy progress."

"Excuse me for interrupting your work at the shipyards, Fiske," Zim apologized,  
>"but I am in mighty need of your help." He fished the picture of the anti-Irken<br>logo out of his PAK and held it in front of the screen. "I need you to tell me what  
>this is."<p>

Fiske gasped sharply and stepped back a few feet. "Where did you get that?"

"I found it taped to the television in my base about an hour ago," Zim replied.  
>"The Tallests gave me the task of caring for their children for a while, and now<br>four of them, along with my SIR unit, are missing. Assuming they were kidnapped,  
>this mysterious logo is the only clue I've found pointing to the kidnapper's identity."<p>

Fiske studied the logo carefully with narrowed eyes. "I've seen that logo before.  
>It belongs to a resistance group called Death Tide."<p>

Sheen raised her antennae in curiousity. "Death Tide?"

"Tell me more about this Death Tide," Zim said eagerly.

"They aren't exactly the largest rebel group out there," Fiske explained, "but they  
>do have powerful friends who provide them with plenty of weapons and ships. Their<br>leader is a Centauri ex-slave named Vash. I don't really know that much about her,  
>but I hear she has some mean laser skills." He smiled slyly and winked, causing Zim<br>and Sheen to exchange puzzled glances.

"Oh, really? Is that so, Foreman Fiske?"

Zim, Sheen, and Fiske immediately turned their heads toward the sudden voice.  
>Tallest Red was standing in the doorway of the communications room, with Tark<br>at his side. He did not look happy.

Zim nearly jumped out of his seat. "My Tallest!" He quickly stood up and waved his  
>arms in front of the screen, much to Fiske's annoyance. "Zim can explain, sir..."<p>

"I heard enough, Zim," growled Red. "Tark told me everything."

Zim hung his head and shuffled his feet against the floor. He was in trouble now!

Red proceeded farther into the room. "So, those Death Tide people are the ones  
>who left that threatening message against me?" he snarled. "You know, it's one<br>thing to threaten the Almighty Tallest, but to threaten the Tallest's family?" His face  
>darkened with anger. "That's bad!"<p>

He turned to Fiske, who was still on the communications screen.

"Does this Death Tide group have a base somewhere?" he demanded. "Tell me  
>where it is! I need to know where they've taken my kids!"<p>

Fiske took a deep breath to calm himself, as Red's sudden temper was making him  
>nervous. "I'm not exactly sure where their base is, sir," he admitted. "However, I've<br>heard that several of their ships have been spotted in the Magmara system."

Red gasped softly, while Zim, Tark, and Sheen all turned pale. The Magmara system  
>was home to the most dangerous planets known to Irkenity, the worst of them being<br>Planet Igneosa. Only the bravest Irken soldiers dared to go there, and most of them  
>never returned.<p>

Trembling, Zim climbed back into his seat in front of the screen. "Are you sure about  
>this?" he asked, trying to stay calm despite his sudden panic.<p>

Fiske nodded. "I'm sorry, but that's all I know."

Red and Zim exchanged dejected looks.

"Well, thanks for the help anyway, Fiske," Red mumbled. "I'd better let you get back to work now."

Fiske nodded in reply. "Well, I'm glad I could do at least something for you. Fiske out."

The Centauri foreman signed off, leaving the screen full of static. Red hovered to the darkest  
>corner in the room and sat down, pressing his hands against his forehead. The other four<br>Irkens gathered around their leader, unsure of what to say to him.

"My Tallest, I can help..." Zim began.

"Don't talk to me, Zim," growled Red. "I should have known something like this would  
>happen if I sent my kids to you. I should have known you'd mess up. What else should<br>I have expected from a defect like you?" He turned his back on the smaller Irken and  
>faced the wall. "You're a disgrace and a failure!"<p>

Zim's face fell. All his life, he had done everything he could to please his leaders, and  
>still they thought of him as a failure. And just when he had the perfect opportunity to<br>prove himself to them, he messed up. And now all his chances of ever gaining the  
>Tallests' favor were gone.<p>

He was a disgrace and a failure.

With his head hanging down, the defective Irken stalked to the opposite side of the  
>room. He sank to the floor on his knees, curled himself up into a ball, and started to<br>cry softly.

* * *

><p><strong>I bet you all hate Tallest Red now for calling Zim a disgrace and blaming him for the <strong>  
><strong>kidnapping. <strong>

**Anyway, you know the drill: read and review!**


	16. Jank's Capture

**I'm not exactly sure I like where this story is going. I'm thinking about deleting the chapters as far back as nine and re-writing the story from there. When I first started writing this story, I wasn't really planning for Zim to get involved with a plot against the Tallests. ****But if you want me to continue with what I have now, I'll do that. **

**Thanks. ~ Farside**

* * *

><p> <em>Back on the Massive...<em>

"What do you mean he just 'ran off'?" Azka demanded. Her medium-green eyes flashed a mixture of  
>worry and anger as she paced back and forth in front of the small table where Purple and Gem were<br>eating breakfast. A sappy soap opera played on the large view screen hanging just above the table.

"He just went to check on the kids, Azka," Purple replied calmly. "I'm sure he'll call us when he gets  
>there, now that the long-distance communication is back online."<p>

Azka stopped her pacing and took a seat at the table. "Yes, but I don't think it was safe for him to  
>leave the Massive when there's an unknown assassin out there just waiting to shoot him through<br>the head! What was he thinking, that moron?"

As she slammed her fist on the table in frustration, Purple quickly grabbed his cup of latte to keep it  
>from spilling all over his powdered donuts. He sighed and rolled his eyes. Sometimes Azka could be<br>such a drama queen, it drove him crazy.

"How do you ever put up with her, Red?" he whispered.

Gem held up her hands and made a calm-down gesture. "Please, can't we just finish our breakfast  
>first and discuss this later?" she asked timidly.<p>

Purple nodded in agreement. "Gem's right. Maybe you'd feel better if you ate something." He grabbed  
>a plate of cinnamon buns and nudged it toward Azka. "Here, have some."<p>

"I didn't say that!" Gem protested.

"Yeah, but you meant it," Purple sneered, smirking triumphantly at her.

Sighing, Azka picked up one of the warm buns in front of her and took a bite. The sweet and sugary  
>taste, along with the slight aroma of cinnamon, seemed to calm her nerves. As she swallowed the last<br>bite, she reached for another bun.

As the three Irken leaders ate in contented silence, Purple's mind went over the events of the night  
>before. The memory of Red's sudden anger and fear as he read the message on the flag caused the<br>lilac-eyed Irken to cringe. He had seen his co-leader angry many times before, but those times were  
>nothing compared to this!<p>

_Whoever left that message must have a serious score to settle with Red,_ Purple thought as he stirred  
>his drink with a small plastic straw. <em>They might even come after me, too. But who would hate us enough<br>to do something like that? I mean sure, there are lots of people out there who hate us, but no one's ever  
>made death threats against us before. They wouldn't dare...!<em>

"Incoming transmission from Planet Earth!" the Massive's computer announced suddenly, causing Purple  
>to spill his latte. The steaming, pale brown liquid flew out of the cup and splashed all over the table, soaking<br>any foods it touched.

"Not my donuts," Purple moaned as he stared at the soggy mess.

As Gem excused herself from the table to call the janitor, the view screen automatically switched from  
>showing the soap opera to showing Zim's lab. Red, Tark, and Sheen were gathered in front of the screen,<br>while Zim sat in a far corner of the room. He appeared to be sulking.

Azka stood up and hovered toward the view screen, glaring at her husband. "Well, it's about time you  
>called!" she growled. "Just what were you thinking running off like that in the middle of the night? Especially<br>when there's a good chance that some trigger-happy stalker is just waiting for us to drop our guard?"

Red sighed. "Purple told you about the death threat the technicians found last night, didn't he?" he  
>grumbled. "Thanks a lot, Pur." He slapped his right palm against his forehead, muttering something<br>about Purple and his big mouth.

Eyes wide with shock, Tark looked at his father, then at his mother. "Death threat? You found one, too?"

"Wait, what do you mean 'found one, too'?" Azka demanded, looking suspiciously at her son. "And where  
>are the other kids?"<p>

Tark looked at Sheen and Red, who both nodded sharply. Sighing, he turned to face his mother once  
>again. "They were kidnapped."<p>

As soon as the sentence had hit her, Azka backed away from the screen and collapsed into the chair  
>directly behind her. Gem, having returned from the intercom on the other side of the room, leaned<br>against a very pale-faced Purple for support.

"Kidnapped? Are you sure?"

"We found this taped to the television in Zim's house," Tark explained. He held up the picture of the  
>Death Tide logo. "The living room was trashed, as if a struggle had taken place there. Oh, and Zim's<br>SIR unit is gone, too."

Huddled in his dark corner, Zim could feel the harsh glares of all four Tallests pierce his skin. He just  
>knew he'd messed up this time. It was back to Foodcourtia, Shloorgogh's, and Sizz-Lorr for him. There<br>was no escape for him.

Purple's grave voice broke the uncomfortable silence. "Well Zim, you've really done it this time. We  
>gave you the task of looking after our children, and you let this happen to them. What do you have<br>to say for yourself?"

Zim turned to face his angry leaders, trembling like a culprit.

"I-I'm so sorry, my Tallests..."

"SECURITY BREACH! UNKNOWN INTRUDER DETECTED IN GUEST SUITE!"

Zim jumped to his feet at the computer's sudden announcement. "An intruder!" He scurried toward  
>the hover platform at the back of the room and hopped on. "I'll have to call you back later, my Tallests!<br>I have to catch that Dib-human before he tries to take Max again!"

As the hover platform zoomed up toward the guest suite, Red turned toward Tark and Sheen. "What  
>did he mean 'take Max again'?" he asked, raising a non-existent eyebrow in a quizzical fashion.<p>

On the viewscreen, the other three Tallests' eyes turned to the two young Irkens. Tark blushed and  
>stared at his feet. Sheen fingered the collar of her jacket as sweat started to drip down her neck.<p>

Purple narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. "I think you two have a lot of explaining  
>to do," he said sternly.<p>

* * *

><p>Jank tiptoed cautiously down the dark hallway of the guest suite. He turned his head around slowly<br>to make sure the coast was clear. Seeing no one behind him, the purple-eyed Irken continued his  
>stroll down the corridor until he reached a door with the word "nursery" written on it in Irken writing.<p>

"This must be it," he whispered to himself. He pressed his back to the wall and sidled into the room.  
>When he reached the crib where Max slept, he took a large burlap bag and a tranquilizer needle out<br>of his PAK.

"One down, two to go," he cackled as he raised the needle above his head and prepared to jab it into  
>the sleeping smeet's arm.<p>

"What are you doing in my house?"

The hand holding the needle froze in mid-air as Jank slowly turned around. Zim stood directly behind  
>the intruder, PAK legs deployed and ready for combat.<p>

"Get out of the house of Zim! Now!"

"I'm just here to pick up something," Jank explained in a sinister voice. "I'll leave just as soon as I get  
>what I came for." He reached into the crib and started to lift Max off the mattress.<p>

Zim rushed forward and grabbed Jank's arm before he could take the smeet out of his crib. "I don't think  
>so," he hissed. "In case you haven't noticed, I am an Invader - and no one takes anything from an Invader!<br>No one!" He snatched Jank off the floor with one of his spider-legs and held him dangling in the air.

"Now, leave my base at once and never come back!" Zim snarled as he threw Jank to the floor. Jank moaned  
>as he landed on his back, but that moan was also accompanied by a dull clanking sound. The impact of the<br>fall caused something shiny to fall off Jank's neck and land on the floor at Zim's feet.

"Hmm?" Puzzled, the maroon-eyed Irken knelt toward the floor and picked up the small medallion. As he  
>fiddled with the strange piece of metal in his hands, something engraved into it caught his eye.<p>

It was the Death Tide Logo!

Zim's heart skipped a beat.

_He's one of them!_ he thought. _Maybe he can lead us to..._

Suddenly, he felt himself being tackled to the floor and pinned down. The sharp tip of a metal spider  
>leg was held threateningly at his throat.<p>

"Yes, I am a member of the Death Tide rebellion!" Jank's voice hissed in Zim's hearing organ. "Our  
>leader, Captain Vash, has a score to settle with the Almighty Tallests, and their children are an<br>important part of her plan. I was sent to find the royal Irken children and bring them to my leader,  
>and I am not about to disappoint her." He turned back toward Max's crib, still holding Zim down with<br>his spider legs. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some unfinished business to -"

Suddenly, a laser blast zoomed into the room and hit the floor at Jank's feet. The surprised Irken  
>jumped away from the crib, unintentionally retracting his PAK legs and releasing Zim as he did so.<p>

"W-what? Who?" Jank stammered, turning slowly toward the door. His eyes widened in terror  
>when they saw Tallest Red standing in front of the door, holding a still smoking laser-gun.<p>

Zim pulled himself to his feet and held up Jank's medallion.

"He's one of them, my Tallest," he said, pointing at the logo engraved into it. "He's with Death Tide."

Red proceeded further into the room, aiming his laser at Jank.

"So you're the one who kidnapped my and Purple's kids!" he snarled. He shoved the cowering Irken  
>against the wall next and pinned him there with his PAK legs. "Now tell me, where did you take them?"<p>

"I'm not telling!" Jank snipped back. "The location of the Death Tide stronghold is strictly classified."

The angry Tallest pressed the muzzle of his gun against the struggling Irken's forehead. "Tell me  
>now," he hissed, "or I'll shoot!"<p>

Zim, meanwhile, continued to study the medallion that had fallen off Jank's neck. As he tossed the  
>quarter-sized piece of metal back and forth in his hands, a thoughtful look crossed his face. He<br>remembered seeing this particular metal before. He also knew it was expensive and difficult to get,  
>because it came from an extremely dangerous planet <em>- one that just happened to be in the Magmara<br>system!_

"Could it be?" the defective Irken mused. "I'm sure of it...Yes, it must be!"

He quickly dashed toward Red, who was preparing to shoot Jank through the head. Just as the  
>Tallest was about to pull the trigger, Zim grabbed his arm.<p>

"That won't be necessary, sir," he panted. "I'm pretty sure I've figured out where his comraddes  
>are hiding." He handed the medallion to Red. "The metal in this medallion is a dead giveaway.<br>See for yourself."

Red held up the medallion and examined it carefully. Sure enough, he recognized the mysterious  
>metal, too. He nodded at Zim and turned back to Jank.<p>

"Okay, I'm going to ask you one more time," said the crimson-eyed Irken leader, his voice dark  
>with rage. "And don't even think about lying, because I'm pretty sure we already know the answer."<br>He held the medallion in front of his prisoner's face. "Now...where are my kids?"

Jank felt the blood drain from his face. He was as good as dead this time, he just knew it. Either  
>Vash would kill him for telling the Tallest where the Death Tide stronghold was, or the Tallest<br>would kill him for not telling. Whatever his choice, he was doomed.

He raised his head and looked his captors straight in the eye.

"Igneosa," he said. "They're on Igneosa."


	17. Vash's Past

**I am so sorry I haven't updated in a while, but I was struggling with major writer's block. That, and my computer**  
><strong>broke and couldn't be fixed, so I had to get a new one. <strong>

**Now, on to the long-awaited chapter!**

* * *

><p><em>Death Tide stronghold, Planet Igneosa...<em>

Vash paced in front of the main view screen in her stronghold's communications room. She swished her long, thin tail  
>back and forth and stomped her hooves against the floor. Her cold, ice-blue eyes flashed with anger as she stared at<br>the blank screen, waiting for Jank's call.

"Where is that clumsy oaf Jank?" she growled. "He should be back by now. Honestly, how long could it possibly take to  
>snatch three children from an incompetent baby-sitter? I can't afford any more snags in my plans."<p>

Standing a few feet behind the angry Centauri mare, guarded by two Vortians, were Aiko, Ven, and Gir. A Screw-Head  
>standing to Ven's right held Sakura and Mariah. All four Irken children, as well as Gir, wore blinking red collars around<br>their necks. Aiko held her arms behind her back and stared at the floor, while Ven glared at Vash with hate-filled eyes.

"Just you wait!" he shouted at her. "My dad will find out what you're doing and probably feed you to the slaughtering -!"

Ven's outburst was cut short by a sudden shock that engulfed his entire body. The young Irken boy drop to the floor on  
>his knees, gnashing his teeth in pain. When the shock had passed, he opened his eyes and saw Vash standing over him,<br>holding a small remote with a blinking red knob on it.

"You can't do that!" Aiko yelled. She stepped forward to defend her little brother, only to fall screaming to the floor as Vash  
>pressed a button on her remote, activating Aiko's shock collar.<p>

"I wouldn't do that again, if I were you," the black and grey Centauri snarled. "Next time, it will be much worse." She placed  
>her thumb and index finger on the knob and turned it up a notch. "Now, are you going to be quiet like good little Irkens, or<br>am I going to have to pump you full of static again?"

Aiko and Ven pulled themselves shakily to their feet and stepped back into line, while Vash kept her eyes on them if they acted  
>up again. Sakura and Mariah snuggled against their caretaker's chest, whimpering softly.<p>

Gir, who had remained quiet through most of the ordeal, watched the children with sympathetic eyes. He wished he could do  
>something to help them, but he was afraid that if he tried, the mean horsey-lady would do something terrible to all of them.<p>

_If only Master was here,_ the defective SIR thought.

"Now, I suppose you are all wondering why I brought you here," said Vash, her voice softer than usual but still dripping with  
>venom. "Yes, after all I put you through, I should explain myself, shouldn't I? Well, it happened twenty years ago, in my<br>hometown of Mountainbrook on Planet Lucasta..."

**FLASHBACK: TWENTY YEARS AGO...**

Vash was playing in one of the nearby streams with her sisters Kari and Terra, along with several other children from their  
>village. The young Centauri foals were having a good time swimming, splashing, and hunting for pretty rocks in the refreshing<br>mountain water. Vash was gathering flowers growing along the bank of the stream when she heard an excited squeal from  
>her younger sister.<p>

"What is it, Terra?"

"Look what I found, guys!" Terra held up the sparkling blue rock for her sisters to see. "I want to take it home to Mama."

"I'm sure she'll love it, Terra," said Kari, the eldest sister. "It's a very nice rock."

Vash perched herself on the edge of the stream and peered into the clear water. "I see another one!" She was about to reach  
>for the glittering rock when she lost her balance and fell into the stream with a loud splash.<p>

"Auugh!" the Centauri girl screamed as she hit the water. As she pulled herself back up again, her sisters giggled at the sight  
>of her dripping wet mane. Scowling, Vash slammed her fist into the water as hard as she could. The resulting splash hit Kari<br>in the face and soaked her favorite shirt.

"Hey!" Kari cried. She and Vash glared at each other for a bit, then smiled. Suddenly, all three sisters were splashing each  
>other, their shrieks of laughter filling the brisk mountain air. Soon other children joined them and started little contests to<br>see who could make the biggest splash.

Vash was about make another splash when a strange sound reached her ears. It sounded a little like the supply ship that  
>brought foreign goods to her village once a month. Vash cocked her head to one side and listened as the sound grew louder<br>and louder, then suddenly stopped.

"I wonder what that was," she said to herself. By now, the other children were climbing out of the water to dry off. Vash  
>and her sisters dried themselves with the towels Kari had brought along and started for home.<p>

Suddenly, the ground began to shake and rumble. The sisters stopped and slowly turned their heads toward the sound.  
>Their eyes grew wider than ever before when they saw several large, metal tanks rolling over the hills toward them.<p>

"RUN!" Kari grabbed both her sisters and ran as fast as she could toward the village. Vash and Terra were confused.

_What was going on? Who was driving those tanks? Were they good or bad?_

As Kari ran screaming into the village, dragging her sisters behind her, several villagers ran out of their houses to see  
>what was going on. When they saw the tanks, the women grabbed their children and ran back inside, while the men<br>grabbed their weapons and rushed forward to fight off the invaders. Several lightning-like blasts zoomed into the village  
>and exploded, setting buildings on fire.<p>

Kari threw open the door to her house and shoved Vash and Terra inside. Their parents, Jacen and Nira, immediately  
>rushed forward to greet them.<p>

"Girls, what's happening?" Nira asked.

Kari panted and wheezed. "Irkens - they're coming this way!"

"Are you sure?" Jacen asked. He did not need an answer, for he immediately noticed the neighbors running for their lives  
>as the tanks rumbled into the village. He snatched all three girls out of the doorway and pulled them into the house, then<br>grabbed a long, slim gun from its case on the wall.

"Nira, take the girls and run while I hold them off!" he called to his wife.

"But Jacen -" Nira started to protest. But Jacen was already out the door and fighting along with the other men.

"Come on, girls! Let's go, before it's too late!" Nira grabbed her daughters and hurried out the back door into the forest  
>beyond the village, along with the other women and children. Vash looked back just in time to see her house burst into<br>flames as a tank fired several blasts at it.

"Mama, what's happening?" she asked. "Why are they burning our homes?"

Before Nira could answer, several Irkens on rocket scooters zoomed out from all directions and surrounded the frightened  
>Centauri, cutting off their escape. The mares, galvanized into action, charged forward to defend their foals. Moments later,<br>many of them lay dead on the ground.

"Run, girls!" Nira screamed. "Hurry!"

Vash grabbed hands with Terra and Kari and hurried away toward the forest. Just as Nira started to follow them, a tall red-  
>eyed male Irken took aim and fired at her. The blast hit her in the chest, and she fell to the ground.<p>

She was dead.

"MAMA!" Vash had looked back just in time to witness her mother's murder, but was quickly jerked away by Kari.

"Come on, Vash, we have to get out of here!"

Suddenly a huge bomb launched from one of the tanks hit the ground and exploded, throwing all three girls off their feet.  
>Vash screamed as she flew through the air and landed hard on her bottom. She looked around frantically for her sisters,<br>until she spotted them lying on the ground in the middle of a large crater. Kari was already dead, but Terra was still alive.

Vash hurried over to her sister and carefully helped her to her feet.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"I think so," Terra replied. "What happened?"

Suddenly, both girls were grabbed from behind. Vash turned to face her captor, then screamed when she saw his face. It  
>was the same Irken who killed her mother. His red eyes seemed to spit fire as he clapped his hand over the girl's mouth to<br>silence her scream.

"If you want to stay alive," he growled, "then I suggest you keep quiet!"

Vash struggled and kicked, trying to get away, but the red-eyed Irken was too strong and powerful for her. He clamped a  
>pair of cuffs attached to a long chain on her wrists, while a purple-eyed male Irken did the same with Terra. The two sisters<br>were dragged away and loaded into the cargo hold of a huge transport ship, along with several other Centauri prisoners.

A red-eyed female Irken peeked into the cargo hold and counted the number of Centauri it contained. She turned to the two  
>men that had captured Vash and Terra.<p>

"Is that all the survivors?" she asked.

"I think so," the red-eyed male replied. The purple-eyed one nodded in agreement.

"Good," replied the female. "We'd better get out of here, because the Organic Sweep is about to start."

Vash and Terra clung to each other as they watched the three Irkens leave the room. A huge metal door slammed shut behind  
>them, cutting off all light from outside. A few minutes later, the ship's engines rumbled to life, shaking the dark room with their<br>power.

"Where are they taking us?" Terra asked.

"I don't know," whispered Vash. All she knew was that her parents and older sister were gone, and every thrum and roar of the  
>ship's engines was taking her and her younger sister farther and farther away from home...<p>

* * *

><p>Five hours later, a sudden jolt, accompanied by an ear-splitting screech, shook the entire ship, waking Vash and Terra from their<br>nap. As the sisters helped each other to their feet, several armor-clad Irken soldiers paraded into the room and began leading the  
>Centauri prisoners out of the cargo hold and down a long, narrow hallway. At the end of the hallway was a huge room filled with<br>all sorts of strange computers Vash had never seen before.

At the center of the room was a tall, green-eyed female Irken who appeared to be floating a few inches above the platform where  
>she stood. One of the soldiers stepped forward and bowed before her. Vash immediately recognized him as the one who killed her<br>mother and Kari. She gnashed her teeth and prepared to charge at him, but was stopped when a burly Irken soldier grabbed her  
>by her right ear and jerked her back into line.<p>

The red-eyed soldier and the tall female spoke to each other for several minutes. Vash leaned forward and tried to listen to what  
>they were saying, but the only words she could make out were "planet" and "slaves". Her eyes narrowed in defiance. There was<br>absolutely no way she was going to be a slave to the monsters who killed her family and destroyed her home!

A sudden wave of energy rushed through the young Centauri girl. While the Irken soldier who was watching her was temporarily  
>distracted, she bucked and kicked out both her back feet, connecting with the soldier's knees. The soldier screamed and stumbled<br>backward, dropping the chain to which Vash was hooked. Vash quickly snatched up the chain and began whipping it back and forth,  
>causing any Irken who came too close to cry out in pain.<p>

The red-eyed Irken soldier paused his conversation with the tall female and turned his attention back to the group of Centauri  
>gathered behind him. His lips curled back into a snarl when he saw Vash trying to escape.<p>

"Don't just stand there!" he shouted at his fellow soildiers. "Stop her! Before she gets away!"

Vash reared up on her hind legs and neighed fiercely as she whipped her chain in circles above her head. Suddenly, a painful shock  
>ripped through her body as an Irken guard zapped her with his taser-staff. Screaming, Vash dropped her chain and fell to the floor.<br>Two Irkens gathered around her and clamped more cuffs on her ankles, while a third chained her hands behind her back.

"I think we'd better keep an eye on this one, General," a purple-eyed female remarked. "She's got a lot of fight in her."

The red-eyed soldier crossed his arms over her chest and smiled smugly.

"I wouldn't worry so much," he said. "I've never met a Centauri I couldn't break. We'll have this one whipped into shape in no time."

He knelt in front of Vash and slid a finger under her chin, tipping her head back so that the two of them made eye contact.

"You think you're so tough, don't you?" he hissed into her ear. "Well, I'll soon fix that!"

Turning back to his fellow soldiers, he ordered, "Take them to the branding chamber and get them marked! Then we'll decide where  
>to ship them!"<p>

The soldiers grabbed the Centauri's chains and led them down a different hallway into another room. This room contained several  
>frightening machines, with long cords hanging from the ceiling. A large table lay in the center of the room, directly under a metal<br>clamp-like device with the Irken symbol on it.

"Okay, tough girl, you first!" The general grabbed Vash and dragged her toward the table. The girl didn't fight him this time, as she  
>was too tired. Within seconds, she lay on her side on the table, strapped down with thick wires.<p>

_What are they going to do to me?_ she thought.

Her question was soon answered when the roar of a working machine reached her ears. The clamp lowered itself toward her head  
>until its jaws where on either side of her right ear. The jaws glowed menacingly for a minute, then suddenly snapped shut on her<br>ear. A sharp, burning pain ripped through Vash's head, causing tears to stream out of her eyes. When the clamp finally let go, the  
>Irken symbol was branded into the Centauri girl's ear.<p>

"You now wear our mark, young lady," the general sneered as he undid the straps that held Vash to the table. "You are now Irken  
>property, doomed to serve us until you die!" He grabbed Vash and shoved her back into the crowd of Centauri slaves. "Next?"<p>

* * *

><p>The next several days were a living nightmare for Vash. Shortly after being marked as a slave to Irkenity, she was shipped to<br>the mining planet Diamonia, while Terra was shipped to the shipyard planet Kell. Distraught over the loss of her sister, Vash  
>cried herself to sleep every night in the drafty bunk house the miners were forced to sleep in.<p>

Every time she tried to escape from the mine, the Irken enforcers caught her and brought her back. They would zap her with  
>their tasers in front of the other slaves, as an example of what would happen if they, too, tried to escape. Then they would lock<br>her away in a cold prison cell for four or five days at a time, without food or water.

But in spite of all she went through day after day, Vash refused to let the Irkens see her tears or hear her cries, for if they  
>did they would know they'd won. Every time she was punished for rebelling against her masters, she kept her mouth shut<br>and presented a stoic face. The Irkens had taken away her home and her family, but she vowed they would never take her  
>spirit. She was determined to be free again.<p>

One day, six years after Vash's capture, the Almighty Tallests came to Diamonia to inspect the mining facilities and obtain  
>a progress report on the work being done there. As Vash watched the two tall, armor-clad Irkens navigate through the plutonium<br>mine where she worked, she immediately recognized one of them as the general who killed her family. Her eyes narrowed in  
>disgust as the Irken leaders hovered past her, ignoring her completely. She was about to step forward and spit in the Tallests'<br>path when the thud of giant mechanical feet on the ground rumbled into the mine. Everyone present, including the Tallests,  
>turned their heads toward the approaching thunder.<p>

Several slaves, including Vash, gasped in horror.

The purple-eyed Tallest's face turned pale. "Oh sweet Irk, not again...!"

An enormous robot stomped into view, smashing and blasting everything in its path. An insane, maniacal laugh drifted down  
>from the robot's cockpit and echoed through the mine.<p>

"Come on, let's stop him before he destroys something important!" growled the red-eyed Tallest. He and his co-ruler quickly  
>left the mine and hurried back to their ship. The enforcers scattered in various directions toward their ships, eager to put a<br>stop to the robot's rampage.

However, in their eagerness to capture the troublemaker, they forgot to close the gate to the mine!

Vash immediately made a beeline for the open gate. "Now's our chance!" she called to her fellow slaves. "Let's get out of here  
>before they come back!"<p>

"But where will we go?" another slave asked.

"We'll find out when we get there," Vash replied. She snatched a small knife off the ground and stood before the crowd of  
>skeptical slaves. She took a deep breath, then sliced off part of her right ear, removing her mark as an Irken slave. The pain<br>she felt was nothing compared to what the Irkens had put her through over the last six years.

"I have made my choice!" she boldly announced, tossing the piece of her ear bearing the Irken mark to the ground. "Those  
>who will, come with me and take your freedom!"<p>

In the end, only fifteen other slaves followed Vash through the gate. As the runaway robot rampaged through the mine, Vash  
>and her companions made their way to an abandoned transport ship. By the time the robot was captured and shut down, the<br>ship had lifted off and was now zooming through Diamonia's atmosphere. The Tallests sent a swarm of Irken Voots to intercept  
>the runaway ship, but they were too late. The ship and its sixteen passengers were long gone.<p>

After six years of slavery to the Irken Empire, Vash was finally free.

But there was still one more thing she needed to do. Someday, she vowed, she would return and get her revenge on the Irken  
>who had destroyed her family and her home. Then, and only then, would she have peace.<p>

**FLASHBACK ENDS  
><strong>  
>"It's a shame I never got to thank that mysterious person who unwittingly helped me escape," Vash mused aloud. "But oh<br>well, what's done is done."

Aiko and Ven exchanged wide-eyed glances. They could not believe their own father had done something so terrible. Sure,  
>they'd seen him do bad things before, but those times were nothing compared to what Vash had just told them.<p>

"Captain, the Armada has arrived!" Sloor announced from his post in front of the viewscreen. He pressed a button on the  
>control panel, causing an image of the Massive and several other Irken ships to appear on-screen.<p>

A cruel grin crossed Vash's face as she watched the screen with narrowed eyes.

"At last," she whispered, "it begins."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Please excuse me if Vash's past makes her sound like a Mary-Sue, but I wanted a good reason for her to **  
><strong>hate the Irken Empire and the Tallests so much that she actually wanted to go as far as kidnapping their young.<strong>

**As for who unintentionally helped Vash escape from Diamonia, I'm pretty sure you already know the answer...**


	18. Second Chance

_Aboard the Massive..._

"We're now coming up on Planet Igneosa, my Tallests," Zarthab announced as a huge, rocky planet came into view  
>on the Massive's main view screen.<p>

Red turned his attention to the view screen and nodded sharply. "Scan the planet for any signs of life," he ordered.  
>"I want to know the exact location of Death Tide's stronghold, and I want to know now!"<p>

Zarthab promptly saluted. "Yes, sir!"

As the technicians got to work, Red watched the view screen with narrowed eyes, while Purple glanced nervously  
>around the bridge, looking for something to calm his nerves. The lilac-eyed Irken took a deep breath and placed his<br>hand on his chest, feeling his heart pounding right through his armor.

"Please, please, please let my little Ri-Ri be alright," he whispered. "I promise I'll give up eating donuts forever...No wait!  
>How about just for a week? Just please, I'll do anything to have my sweet baby girl back in my arms again..."<p>

"Sirs, I think I found something!" Zarthab announced from his post at the control panel. "There's a strong life reading coming  
>from that volcanic crater. I think it's Death Tide's stronghold."<p>

Red and Purple hovered toward the control panel to see for themselves.

"They built their base near an active volcano?" Purple shrieked. "Now that's just crazy!" He turned to Red. "You don't suppose  
>they're going to throw our kids into that volcano, do you?"<p>

"They wouldn't dare!" growled Red. "If those sons of Gasquiggasplorches dare lay a finger on our kids, I'll make them wish  
>they were never born!" He turned around and made his way to the nearest door.<p>

Purple followed him. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going down to that base and getting our kids back!" Red replied.

Purple grabbed his arm. "You're not going down there alone," he announced firmly. "I'm coming with you."

Red gently shoved him away. "No, Pur. Since this threat was directed mainly at me, I think I should do this alone. Stay  
>here and look after the others."<p>

But Purple refused to leave his side. "Do you think Azka would ever forgive me if I let you go through with this? What if  
>something happens to you down there?" He crossed his arms over his armor-clad chest. "No, Red, this is something we<br>need to do together. And don't even try to talk me out of it. My mind is already made up."

Red sighed heavily, knowing he'd been defeated. "Alright, we'll go together. But if we both get killed, it's all your fault."  
>He turned back to the technicians. "Purple and I are going down to the planet and giving Death Tide a piece of our minds.<br>If we need back-up, we'll let you know."

"But sirs, what about Tallests Azka and Gem?" Zarthab protested.

"Just tell them to stay calm and not to worry," Purple replied. "We'll be fine."

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Tark and Sheen were relaxing together on the couch in the lounge just below the bridge. Azka and Gem sat<br>at a nearby table with Tita, drinking tea and talking in hushed tones. Max sat on the floor at Gem's feet, playing quietly  
>with his toys.<p>

Noticing that Tark was being strangely quiet, Sheen placed her hand on her friend's arm.

"Hey, you okay?" she asked.

"What?" Tark snapped out of his thoughts and turned to Sheen. "Oh, um, yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"I noticed that look on your face. What's on your mind?"

Tark placed his hands in his lap and stared at the floor. "This may seem crazy," he said, "but to tell you the truth, I  
>actually feel sorry for Zim. I mean, it wasn't really his fault Aiko, Ven, and the smeets were kidnapped. How was he<br>to know Death Tide was out to get us?"

Sheen gently placed her hand on her belly, wincing in discomfort. She wasn't sure what it was that made her feel  
>this way, but during those last two days, something had changed inside of her - something about her attitude toward<br>Zim. And judging by the way he spoke, Tark felt the same way, too.

"Yeah, our parents aren't being fair," Sheen replied softly. "All Zim did was look after us on that planet, just as he'd been  
>told to. He kept us safe from the humans, he made sure we were fed and clothed properly, he helped us save Max from that<br>big-headed boy. And if it weren't for him, we wouldn't have caught that Death Tide member who tried to take Max. We'd  
>still be searching the whole galaxy for that stronghold."<p>

"Exactly," Tark agreed. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but we owe a lot to that little defect. Sure, he's annoying and destructive  
>and all that, but I've got to admit he's also persistent and tries his best. I don't think I've ever seen any Irken quite as determined<br>as him." He chuckled nervously. "I wouldn't tell this to Dad or Uncle Taren, but if I were Tallest, I'd definitely make Zim an Invader  
>- or at least an Elite commander."<p>

Sheen giggled. "Me, too. And yes, it would kill our dads if we ever told them that!"

"Told them what, my Prince and Princess?"

Tark and Sheen stopped their giggling just long enough to open their eyes and face the Irken royal guard who stood before them.  
>A purplish-pink blush crept across both children's faces.<p>

"Um, nothing, sir," Tark replied nervously. "We were just talking about how dreadful it would be if our dads woke up one day to  
>find all their snacks stolen."<p>

"Yes, can you imagine how horrified they'd be?" Sheen chimed in.

The guard just stood there and stared at the two children, wondering what on Irk would cause them to joke about such a thing.  
>It was well known in the Empire that a Tallest without his snacks was no laughing matter. "Um, yes, that would be terrible, now<br>wouldn't it?" he agreed, trying not to look suspicious. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to speak with your mothers."

Tark and Sheen watched as the guard left to speak with Azka and Gem. As soon as he was on the other side of the room, Tark  
>pulled himself off the couch and tiptoed toward the door. Before he could reach it, Sheen stood up and began to follow him.<p>

"Where are you going?" she whispered anxiously.

Tark held his index finger to his lips in a "be quiet" gesture. "I'm going to break Zim out. Then we're going down to that  
>stronghold to rescue the others."<p>

Sheen's eyes widened. "But you could get in trouble!"

"I know," Tark told her. "But I think Zim deserves a second chance, and if our parents won't give it to him, then I will."

As he turned to leave the room, Sheen grabbed his hand and held it tightly. Her soft violet eyes stared worriedly into his  
>crimson ones as she managed a weak smile.<p>

"Be careful down there, okay?"

Tark gently pried Sheen's hand away from his. "Calm down, Sheen, I'm not dead yet," he chuckled softly. He placed his  
>hand on her shoulder and gave it an affectionate squeeze. "I promise, I'll be okay. Just try not to worry so much, alright?"<p>

As Tark left the room and headed down the corridor leading to the cell block, Sheen took several breaths to calm herself  
>before she sat back down on the couch.<p>

_I hope he knows what he's doing,_ she thought.

* * *

><p>In a dark room just off the Massive's cell block, Zim sat shackled to a small chair under the watch of two burly guards,<br>awaiting his trip back to Foodcourtia. Jank had already been taken to a maximum security prison on Planet Cellblockia,  
>where he would stay until he could be brought to trial.<p>

Zim sighed and kicked his feet back and forth, causing the chains that bound him to his chair to rattle softly.

_If only they would give me a second chance,_ he thought miserably. _If only Dib hadn't..._His eyes narrowed in anger. _Dib!  
>It's all his fault! If he hadn't kidnapped Max, I<em> _wouldn't have had to leave the house, meaning I would have been there  
>to fight off the kidnappers! It's all thanks to Dib my reputation with the Tallests is ruined! That stupid, filthy human...!<em>

One of the guards noticed Zim fidgeting in his seat and cleared his throat.

"Quit your squirming!" he growled.

Zim looked warily at the guard. "Please excuse me, sir," the diminutive Irken apologized, "but I do not believe Zim is  
>to blame for the kidnapping."<p>

"Don't be ridiculous, of course it was your fault," sneered the second guard as he chomped on a chili dog. "Every time  
>something goes wrong in the Empire, it's always your fault!"<p>

"Please, just let me speak to the Tallests!" Zim pleaded. "I'm sure they'll give me a second chance if I just explain..."

His plea was cut short as the guards zapped him with their taser staffs.

"Silence!" the first guard snapped. "The Tallests gave you an important job, and you have failed them! There will be  
>no second chance this time."<p>

"Face it, defect," the second guard chimed in, "it's the end of the line for you!"

"No, there must be some mistake!" Zim cried. He jumped up in his chair and raised his arms as high as his chains  
>would let him. "The Tallests trust me and would never give up on me! Surely they will listen to me if you would just<br>let me...!"

The first guard raised his staff and prepared to zap Zim once more when a sudden blast from the south hall interrupted  
>him. Several alarms blared loudly, warning the Massive's security personnel that there had been a break-in in one of the<br>corridors on the prison deck. Zim's guards immediately dropped their staffs and hurried out of the room to help capture  
>the intruder, leaving their prisoner unattended.<p>

"Eh, what is this madness?" Zim wondered aloud. He leaned forward as far as his chains would let him, trying to get a  
>better look at what was happening down the hall. As he squinted his eyes through the pale blue smoke, he could make<br>out a small figure hurrying toward him, dashing from one wall to the other in an attempt to throw any followers off its  
>trail. As the figure got closer, Zim realized it was Tark.<p>

"What are you doing down here, Prince Tarquin?" scolded the defective Irken. "Don't you know there's been a break-in?  
>Your parents will be worried sick!"<p>

"Don't worry, Zim, it was me who caused that explosion," Tark replied. "I'm here to break you out." He knelt next to  
>Zim's chair and began picking the locks that secured his chains. Soon, Zim was released from the uncomfortable prison<br>chair.

"Why are you doing this, my Prince?" he asked. "Haven't you listened to anything your father said about me? About how  
>I was a disgrace and a failure?"<p>

"You are a disgrace, Zim," Tark replied matter-of-factly. "You've done a number of terrible things that could have led to  
>our race's downfall. You plunged our planet into darkness twice, you killed two of our leaders, you ruined our first attempt<br>at galactic conquest...I could go on about your crimes against our people. But guess what?"

"What?" asked Zim, wondering what the boy was going to say next.

Tark took a deep breath, then tossed the chains he was holding to the floor.

"I'm not like my father, Zim," he said. "I'm not going to let you suffer for something that wasn't really your fault."

Zim stared incredulously at his prince. "Excuse me?"

"Think about it. It wasn't your fault the younger kids got kidnapped." Tark wrung his hands and stared uncomfortably  
>at the floor. "Maybe if Sheen and I had been more helpful to you, none of this would have happened. Max wouldn't have<br>been taken by that human boy, we wouldn't have had to leave the house to look for him..." His voice began to crack as  
>he prepared to swallow his pride and ask Zim for help.<p>

"I can't believe I'm doing this, but...Zim, I need your help. Could you swipe a Voot from the hangar and help me rescue  
>the others from that base?"<p>

Zim couldn't believe what he'd just heard. A higher-ranking Irken was actually asking him, a lowly defect, for help.  
>Never in the history of Irk had such a thing happened!<p>

"I - I don't know what to say, Prince Tarquin," stammered Zim. "No one has ever been willing to give Zim a second  
>chance before."<p>

"Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't do this," Tark told him. "But like I said before, this whole kidnapping mess  
>isn't really your fault, so I'm going to cut you some slack this time."<p>

Zim quickly grabbed Tark's hand and shook it wildly. "Oh, thank you so much, my Prince!" he exclaimed happily.  
>"Zim shall not fail you again!"<p>

Tark rolled his eyes and pulled his hand out of Zim's grasp. "Yeah, just don't expect this kind of thing on a regular  
>basis," he said. "Now let's get out of here before the guards come back."<p> 


	19. At My Mercy

**A/N: I plan for this story to have two or three more chapters, then I'm done. I'm also planning a sequel, Adventures In Babysitting,  
><strong>**which will just be oneshots about Zim and the kids on Earth. **

**Okay, now that's been said, on to the story!**

* * *

><p><em>Death Tide stronghold (exterior), Planet Igneosa...<em>

Vash watched the red-orange sky with narrowed eyes, waiting for the Tallests' arrival. Sparks and ash from a nearby volcano  
>swirled through the air like confetti. An occasional rumble shook the ground, signaling that the volcano would soon erupt.<p>

_Soon, my dear ones,_ Vash thought as her gaze drifted from the sky to the top of the volcano, then back to the sky again.  
><em>Soon the Irken Empire will pay dearly for its crimes<em> _against us. Did they seriously think they could get away with this forever?  
><em> A malicious smirk appeared on her face. _Well, soon they shall see they were wrong!_

Aiko and Ven watched anxiously from the doorway of the stronghold, wondering what was to become of them. What was  
>Vash planning to do once their father and his co-ruler arrived? Whatever the deranged Centauri mare's plans were, they<br>did not sound promising. And what happened to Zim and the others back on Earth? Did they rescue Max from the big-headed  
>human boy yet?<p>

"I want to go home," Aiko whispered softly to herself. "I want my mom and dad."

Ven reached out his arm to comfort his sister, but the two of them were suddenly jerked backward by an irritated Lieutenant  
>Sloor. The tan-skinned, green-eyed Vortian did not look happy at all!<p>

"Would you two be quiet and stop fidgeting?" he hissed. "You kids are giving me a headache!" He spat on the sandy black  
>ground just outside of the stronghold. The ash drifting down from the volcano stung his eyes, making him cranky and irritable,<br>and having to watch five restless prisoners was doing nothing to improve his mood.

"Why am I suddenly starting to question the captain's sanity?" he whispered.

His partner, Selina, cocked her head to one side in curiosity.

"Did you say something, Lieutenant?" she asked.

Sloor shook his head. "It was nothing, Selina. Nothing at all."

"Uh-huh, sure it was," sneered Selina, crossing her arms over her chest. "I wonder if it would be fit to tell the captain..."

Sloor was about to open his mouth and protest when a shout rang out from the stronghold's look-out tower.

"They're coming!"

Vash turned her head toward her crew mates.

"Everyone, man your stations!" she barked.

The Death Tide rebels immediately obeyed their captain and scrambled into their positions on the field in front of their  
>stronghold. Sloor and Selina remained at the stronghold's entrance, where they would wait until Vash called for them<br>to bring out the children.

As soon as their shuttlecraft had landed, Tallests Red and Purple stepped out and proceeded down the exit ramp. Vash  
>stepped forward to greet them, looking her old enemy straight in the eye the entire time.<p>

"It's been a long time, your Tallest," she growled ominously.

Red crossed his arms over chest and glared back at her.

"I have no idea what you're talking about!" he snapped. "All I know is that you have my and Purple's smeets. Now give  
>them back!"<p>

Vash placed her hands on her hips and tilted her head to one side. "Come now, don't I look familiar to you? Perhaps  
>you remember seeing me somewhere?"<p>

"I swear I have never seen you before in my life," Purple snarled. "Now stop stalling and give me back my baby before  
>I call for back-up!"<p>

But Vash wasn't finished yet. "You may not remember, but I do," she growled, slamming her fist into the palm of her  
>other hand. "It was twenty years ago, during the invasion of Planet Lucasta, that we first met. Twenty years ago, your<br>Tallests!"

Red gasped and clutched at his head as his mind flashed back to the day of the Lucasta invasion. He remembered the  
>frightened face of a certain Centauri foal as she watched him kill her family and destroy her home. He remembered the<br>look of defiance on her face as he dragged her into a life of slavery to the Irken Empire.

Now, standing before him and Purple once more, was that same foal - only this time she was a foal no longer, but a  
>grown mare.<p>

"You!" he hissed, panting heavily. "You're that girl! But I thought -"

"That what?" Vash asked. "I ran off and forgot all about you?" She laughed maniacally. "Do you seriously think I'd forget  
>something that scarred me so terribly as a child? No, your Tallests, I could never forget that awful day when you destroyed<br>my world and shattered my peace forever.

"Once I escaped from Diamonia, I began planning my revenge against the race that had caused me so much pain and  
>misery. But I knew I could not do it alone, so I travelled across the galaxy and gathered team after team of aliens who<br>had a score to settle with the Irken Empire. We chose Igneosa as our base of operations, because we knew how much  
>your race feared this planet due to its unpredictable eruptions. We knew you would never even hope to find any life form<br>here, much less an entire resistance group!"

"Oh yeah, well guess what?" sneered Red. "We did find you, because we caught one of your cronies snooping around on  
>a planet called Earth. He knew we would not hesitate to kill him if he refused to tell us what we wanted to know, so he<br>told us where we could find you!"

He deployed a large plasma blaster from his PAK and aimed it at Vash's head. Purple did the same.

"Now," he growled, his voice dark with rage, "return our children to us at once, or we'll send you straight to hell!"

Vash sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "Yes, I guess I should bring you your kids, shouldn't I? Alright, I'm flexible."

She turned toward her stronghold and barked, "Sloor! Selina! Bring out the prisoners!"

Sloor led Aiko and Ven out of the stronghold on a long chain. Selina followed close behind, carrying Sakura and  
>Mariah. As they approached, Vash watched her prisoners carefully in case they tried to break free and run to the<br>Tallests.

"Dad!" Aiko called to her father.

"Aiko! Ven! Saku!" A look of relief crossed Red's face as he caught sight of his children. They were dazed and  
>bruised from Vash's shock treatments, but luckily they were still alive.<p>

"Ri-Ri!" Purple squealed with delight as Selina placed the whimpering smeet into his arms. Happy to be reunited  
>with his youngest daughter, he held her against his chest, tears streaming down from his eyes. "There there, sweetie,<br>it's okay. Daddy's got you."

"Yes, I do so love teary reunions," Vash whispered sarcastically. She turned toward the rebel soldiers gathered in  
>front of the stronghold and snapped her fingers. The soldiers immediately rushed forward and surrounded the Tallests<br>and their children, aiming their guns at their prisoners' heads.

"What is this?" Purple yelled angrily, clutching a crying Mariah against his chest.

Red turned his head toward Vash, eyes burning with unspeakable fury.

"You *****!" he shouted. "You'll never get away with this! It just so happens I've got the entire Irken Armada waiting  
>in space. If you don't release us at once, I'll call them and have them blow you to hell!"<p>

Vash pulled her laser gun out of its sheath and aimed it at her old enemy.

"I don't think even your mighty Armada can save you this time, your Tallest," she sneered. She gestured toward a large  
>yellow beam extending from her stronghold into the sky. "That tractor beam is locked on to the power core of every ship<br>in your fleet, including the Massive itself, holding them immobile. And as an added bonus, it has also deactivated their  
>weapons, making them totally helpless. You - and your precious Irken Armada - are now at my mercy!"<p>

"You're insane!" cried Purple. "Absolutely insane!"

Vash shot him a self-satisfied smirk. "You don't even know the half of it," she said. She turned toward her stronghold  
>once again and fired two blasts into the sky, signalling for the rebels manning the tractor beam to begin pulling the<br>Massive toward the planet surface and into the volcano.

* * *

><p>Unbeknownst to Vash, Gir was awake and running loose inside the stronghold. Since he was a defective SIR unit<br>the rebels didn't think he could do much damage, much less call for back-up, so they didn't bother with him.  
>The little robot now sat in a corner in the stronghold's weapons storage room, pondering the situation the<br>others were in.

"I need to do something," Gir whispered to himself, "or that mean horsey-lady is gonna throw the kids into  
>that big 'splody-pit. But it's scary out there with all those big 'splodies comin' from the ground. If only Master<br>was here..."

Suddenly, it hit him. _'Splodies!_ That was it! Maybe if he created a big explosion, it would temporarily distract  
>the bad guys and buy him and the kids some time to escape. Yes, that's what his master would have done if<br>he were here.

Pleased with himself, Gir went into duty mode and scanned the room for something highly explosive until his  
>eyes rested upon a large metal crate containing Centaurian gun powder. Yes, that would do. He eagerly deployed<br>a missile launcher from his head and fired at the crate. The crate rocked back and forth a few times, but remained  
>upright and in one piece.<p>

"What's going on back there?" shouted a voice from down the hall. Five rebel soldiers had heard the noise coming  
>from weapons storage and were heading there to investigate. Gir desperately fired several more times, but the metal<br>crate held firm.

_Why won't it asplode?_ thought the SIR unit. _Come on box, go 'splodies!_

Just as he was about to fire one last time, the door flew open. The rebel soldiers rushed into the room and held their  
>guns at Gir's head.<p>

"Hold it right there, you piece of garbage!" growled one of the soldiers, a husky Centauri stallion. He was about to  
>step forward and grab Gir when the SIR unit fired his last missile at the crate. The missile hit a dent in the crate,<br>causing it to burst open and spill its contents on the floor.

"Run!" yelled the Centauri stallion, and he and his comrades made a mad dash for the door. Just seconds after  
>they left, the gun powder ignited and exploded, destroying the weapons storage area and sending Gir flying through<br>the air.

* * *

><p><strong>Alright, Gir got away! But now Vash has the Tallests and the Massive in her clutches!<strong>


	20. Impending Doom

"My Tallests!"

Guardsman Toff rushed into the lounge as fast as his legs could carry him. Shocked by his sudden intrusion, Azka and Gem  
>hovered toward the door to greet him. Sheen remained seated on the couch, with Max sitting on the floor by her feet.<p>

"What is the meaning of this, Toff?" Azka asked. Barging into a Tallest's private room unannounced was considered a  
>serious offence in the Irken Empire, and was often punishable by death.<p>

Toff gasped and panted several times before looking up to face his leaders' wives.

"Forgive my intrusion, my Tallests," he said, "but I've just received word that the Massive, along with the rest of the  
>Armada, has been caught in a tractor beam and is now being pulled toward the planet surface!"<p>

As soon as the words left his mouth, Toff was knocked off his feet as Azka and Gem hurried toward the bridge, where  
>several pilots and officers were running around and freaking out. Zarthab was seated in his chair in front of the control<br>panel, typing furiously at one of the keyboards.

Azka hovered toward Zarthab until she stood right behind him.

"What's happening?" she asked.

"This is like nothing I've ever seen before," Zarthab replied, shaking his head. "It looks like Death Tide is using a tractor  
>beam to haul us to the planet surface, but I don't understand how they locked on to all of our ships at once."<p>

"Perhaps they're using a Kuzonian tractor beam," Gem suggested. "Those have the power to lock on to up to one thousand  
>targets at once."<p>

Azka shook her head. "That's impossible. The Kuzonians have never shared their technology with anyone."

"Well, you never know, my Tallest," Zarthab told her.

The Massive lurched forward as it approached Igneosa, throwing every Irken on the bridge off balance. Zarthab flew out of  
>his chair and crashed into Gem, sending both Irkens flying through the air and into the wall.<p>

"Is anything being done about the situation?" Azka asked. She had to shout in order to be heard, because so many other  
>Irkens were screaming.<p>

"I don't think there's really anything we can do, my Tallest," replied a female officer as she tried to pull herself up. "Our  
>weapons are offline, and our communication signals are very weak, so it's unlikely someone will here us if we try to call<br>for help."

Azka wrung her hands and stared at the main viewscreen, watching as the surface of Igneosa loomed closer and closer.  
>Never in her life had she felt so helpless. She'd always considered herself to be the kind of person who was always in<br>control of her life, who always knew what to do, who was never afraid...

But now, with her husband and children on the planet surface and herself being pulled to her doom, she felt her confidence  
>slip away. She was lost in a forest of fear and hopelessness.<p>

_What will become of us all?_ she thought.

* * *

><p>Zim narrowed his eyes as he gazed out the windshield of the Irken battle cruiser he and Tark had swiped from the Massive's<br>hangar. He was on a rescue mission once again, only this time he was not on Earth as he'd been before. Instead, he was on  
>one of the most dangerous planets known to his race, searching for a stronghold belonging to a rebel group led by a revenge<br>-crazed resistance leader.

"Just who does this Vash-beast think she is, anyway?" he muttered. "Does she seriously think she has a chance against an  
>alien race far ahead of her own?" He cackled maniacally. "Too bad she didn't expect the Tallests to bring in the ultimate weapon,<br>the pride of the Irken military - Invader Zim!"

Tark rolled his eyes as he watched Zim boast of his greatness for probably the millionth time that day.

_No wonder Dad and Uncle Taren can't stand him,_ the young Irken prince thought. _He's just so full of himself, he refuses to listen  
>to anyone but himself!<em>

Weary from Zim's constant bragging, Tark turned his head toward the window just to his left. Several feet below the ship  
>lay the many miles of dark, rocky ground and jagged mountains that made up the surface of Igneosa. The land was streaked<br>with several rivers of hot, steaming lava that flowed down from the volcanoes. It all looked pretty boring, except for that  
>strange pink line extending from somewhere behind the mountains into the sky...<p>

"Wait a minute!" Tark blinked, then he rubbed his eyes and stared out the window again. That line didn't look natural at all!  
>In fact, he remembered seeing a pink line just like that one during the Irken Armada's conquest of Planet Kuzon. In an attempt<br>to defend their homeworld, the Kuzonians had tried to use one of their tractor beams to pull the Massive into their planet's acidic  
>ocean. Luckily for the Armada, they'd failed.<p>

"Zim..." the younger Irken began, but Zim had already noticed the beam and guessed what it meant. He made a sharp turn to  
>the left and started in the direction of the pink line.<p>

"I think I've found them, Prince Tarquin!" exclaimed the defective Irken. He stood up in the pilot's chair and did a little victory  
>dance. "Those Death Tide rebels hid themselves well, but they were still no match for my incredible brain meats!"<p>

"Um, yeah Zim, that's amazing," Tark said half-heartedly.

Zim nodded. "Yes, I am amazing, aren't I? Now, to rescue your siblings and rain some doom down on the heads of our  
>doomed enemies!" He turned back to the ship's console and swept his gaze over it until his eyes rested on a large red<br>button. Just as he was about to press it, something struck the outside of the cruiser, causing the ship to rock slightly.

"Eh?" Zim whipped his head toward the ceiling, wondering what he'd just hit. He headed to the back of the ship and  
>climbed up the ladder toward the hatch that opened to the roof. Just as he opened the hatch, something white and<br>metallic tackled him, causing him to tumble down the ladder back into the ship, taking the tackler with him.

"Hi, Master! You so squishy!"

"Gir!" Zim pulled himself to his feet and shoved the SIR unit away from his face. "How many times have I told you  
>not to grab me by the face?"<p>

"I like squishy!" Gir replied, a stupid grin spreading across his face.

Tark jumped from his seat and rushed toward Zim and Gir.

"Thank Irk you're okay, Gir," he panted. "Where are the others? Are they alright?"

Gir scrambled to his feet and pointed at the pink line in the distance.

"The mean horsey-lady caught the Tallests when they came to get the babies!" he cried. "We've gots to hurry, or  
>she's gonna throw 'em into the big 'splody pit with all the space ships!"<p>

Tark and Zim both turned pale. They couldn't believe what they'd just heard. Captain Vash was actually going to  
>throw the entire Irken Armada into the volcano, and the Irken royal family with it! That crazy Centauri mare had<br>definitely gone off the deep end.

Zim dashed to the front of the ship and jumped back into the pilot's seat, while Tark and Gir watched with stunned  
>expressions on their faces.<p>

"No one ruins Zim's assignments!" Zim growled. "No one!" He slammed his fist down on the red button. As a red  
>light flashed on and off inside the cockpit, the battle cruiser transformed into a giant robot similar to the one Zim<br>had used to ruin Operation Impending Doom One.

"Wow, I was wondering why you took one of the advanced models," Tark mused as he and Gir caught up with  
>Zim in the cockpit.<p>

"We needs it to make the bad guys go 'splodies," Gir piped up.

Zim rolled his eyes at his minion's ridiculous comment.

"Yes, Gir, lots of explosions," he replied. "Now both of you, man those knobs and levers! It's time for some serious  
>destruction!"<p>

"I sure hope he knows what he's doing," Tark muttered to himself.

* * *

><p>"Get back in line, shrimp!"<p>

Ven clenched his eyes shut and whimpered as a pair of strong arms grabbed him and forced him back into line  
>with the rest of Death Tide's prisoners as they trudged slowly up the rocky slope. The young Irken had never<br>been so terrified in his life! He'd heard many stories over the years of Irken soldiers who'd met untimely deaths  
>on dangerous planets like Igneosa, but he'd never thought such a thing could ever happen to him. He'd always<br>believed that his father would always be able to protect him from anyone who'd try to hurt him. But that was  
>before Death Tide and Captain Vash came along.<p>

At the front of the line, Red and Purple held their heads high, trying to look brave but feeling terrified on the  
>inside. Never in their reign as Tallests had they ever dreamed that someone would actually have the brains<br>and the tools to bring about their downfall! It was unthinkable. What would the rest of the Empire say when  
>they discovered their Tallests and Armada destroyed at the hands of a former slave? Their strength would<br>very likely falter, and everything they'd worked so hard to achieve would be lost.

It seemed that the mighty Irken Empire had finally met its match.

"Care to share your thoughts, your Tallests?"

Red's mind snapped back into reality when Vash grabbed him by the chin and brought his face forward to  
>meet her smug grin. Her blue eyes sparkled with malice and triumph as he glared back at her.<p>

"Not with you!" growled the crimson-eyed Irken as he shoved Vash's hands away from his face.

"Are you sure?" Vash asked slyly, cocking her head to one side. "This may be your last chance to get down  
>on your knees and beg for mercy."<p>

Purple moved slightly to the left to shield Aiko, Ven, Sakura, and Mariah from any possible attacks from the angry Centauri mare.

"You'll get no such pleasure from us, you four-legged devil!" he hissed. "If we must die, we'll die with dignity!"

Vash snatched up her gun and waved it back and forth in front of her prisoners. "We'll see about that, Irken Tallest!"

The group continued up the mountain until they arrived at the huge, lava-filled crater at the top. Several feet below  
>the edge of the crater, the lava bubbled and boiled menacingly, as if daring any potential victims to come closer. Smoke<br>and sparks drifted up from the crater and swirled in the wind, creating an aura of fiery doom.

"The Massive is five minutes from entering the atmosphere, Captain!" shouted a female voice from the tower manning  
>the tractor beam.<p>

"Very good, Kerda!" Vash called back. "Keep watching that monitor. Once the Irken Armada clears the planet's atmosphere,  
>I want you to set the beam to Turbo and slam them into the crater!"<p>

"Yes, ma'am!" Kerda called back.

Satified with the report, Vash turned back to the Tallests.

"I'll be saving the two of you for last," said Vash, pointing to Red and Purple, "so that your last moments may be filled  
>with the same misery and agony you put me through all those years ago. Let's see how you like it when you're forced<br>to watch everything you know and love go up in flames!" Her eyes seemed to spit fire as she let out a harsh, ear-  
>splitting cackle.<p>

"You fiend!" Purple cried. He tried to charge at Vash, but soon several of her men were upon him, aiming guns at  
>his PAK and head.<p>

"You'll never get away with this!" Red snarled, pointing at Vash. "In case you haven't noticed, the Irken Empire  
>won't die out just because we aren't there to lead it. The death of a Tallest has never been powerful enough to<br>destroy us, and never will be! Someday, somehow, we will be avenged!"

Vash was not in the least bit fazed by his bluff.

"You Irkens are all alike, acting all high and mighty to cover up your cowardice!" she sneered. "Do you seriously  
>believe your precious empire will still have the strength to defeat its enemies after you're gone? At what makes you<br>think your people will be willing to avenge you, after how you've treated them?" She studied her fingernails as she  
>spoke. "Yes, I'll bet the Irken Empire will be glad to be rid of such self-centered tyrants as yourselves!"<p>

Red's eyes softened as his anger faded away and disbelief clouded his mind. He knew Vash had made a strong point.  
>He and Purple were never the most benevolent leaders in the history of Irk. He remembered how the two of them<br>spent most of their time eating junk food and making fun of the shorter Irkens, while many Irken soldiers went  
>hungry while risking their lives for the empire. He remembered his and Purple's families and how they seldom spent<br>any time with them. The memories swept through his brain like leaves in the autumn wind...

_"Dad, I'm bored! Won't you play with me?"_

_"Not now, Ai. I'm expecting a call from Invader Yin any minute. I don't have time for games right now."_

_"Hey Dad, look what I made in school today!"_

_"Ven, how many times have I told you not to barge in while I'm working? How am I supposed to get any work done _  
><em>with you yelling about some stupid thing you made in school?"<em>

_"I'm sorry, Dad, I just-"_

_"Get out, Ven, just get out!"_

The memories faded, and the Irken leader's mind returned to the present.

_If only I had known it would come to this,_ he thought. _If there was one thing I could take back..._

A sudden scream brought Red out of his thoughts and back into reality. The crimson-eyed Tallest opened his eyes  
>just in time to see Vash grab Aiko by her left arm and drag her to the edge of the crater.<p>

"Say bye-bye, Irken spawn!"

Just as Vash was about to push Aiko over the edge, several blasts slammed into the base of the mountain, shaking  
>the ground with their force. A familiar maniacal cackle echoed through the clearing.<p>

"What is this?" Still holding Aiko by her arm, Vash whipped her head around to see what had caused the quake.  
>Terror filled the Centauri mare as an enourmous shadow loomed over the mountain.<p>

"No," she whispered softly. "It can't be!"

* * *

><p><strong>*gasp* Another chapter, finally! Man, it's getting hard to keep this story going! I'm not very good at writing <strong>  
><strong>scenes like this. :( <strong>

**Don't forget to review!**


	21. Zim To The Rescue

Vash had never been so terrified in her life. Even her childhood memory of the Irken invasion of her village was  
>nothing compared to this! Stomping angrily through the vicinity of her base was an enormous Irken Battle Mech<br>similar to the ones the Irken Armada had used during the conquest of Planet Lucasta.

"But how?" the Death Tide leader wondered aloud. "There's no way any ship could have escaped from my tractor  
>beam!"<p>

The Tallests, of course, immediately guessed what might have happened. Either Tark or Sheen, or both of them,  
>had gone soft and helped Zim escape from his transport back to Foodcourtia.<p>

"As soon as this is over," Red whispered to Purple, "we are going to have a nice, long talk with those two!"

"Yeah," Purple whispered back. "I'm gonna make them sorry!"

The battle mech opened fire upon the Death Tide stronghold and all the defense structures surrounding it. The  
>rebels gathered in a circle around their prisoners and captain, keeping their hands on their weapons. Vash took<br>several deep breaths to calm herself before doing anything rash. Half of her men kept an eye on the mech, while  
>the other half watched their leader, awaiting further orders.<p>

"Your orders, ma'am?" asked Sloor.

Several tense minutes passed without a response. Finally, Vash switched on her comlink and contacted her base.

"Kerda, I want you to lock all weapons on that battle mech and prepare to fire on my command."

"Yes, ma'am," Kerda replied, and immediately got to work. Within seconds, several cannons popped out of the hatches  
>on the stronghold's roof and aimed themselves at the battle mech.<p>

Selina tapped Vash on the shoulder. "The Massive is now two minutes from the planet's atmosphere, Captain," she said.

"Excellent!" Vash replied, nodding her approval. She turned her attention back to her base and the battle mech attacking it.

"All weapons are online and ready to fire, Captain," Kerda announced over the comlink.

Vash narrowed her eyes and smirked, keeping her gaze on the battle mech. She took one last calming breath before she  
>gave her order.<p>

"Fire!"

* * *

><p>Zim gasped as he felt his battle mech shake beneath his feet. Trying not to seem frightened, he grabbed hold of the<br>steering wheel and forced the battle mech toward the volcano. But he'd barely taken two steps when a missile launched  
>from Death Tide's base hit the ground at the mech's feet, almost knocking it over.<p>

"They's goin' 'splodies!" Gir announced excitedly. "I like 'splodies!"

"Gir, be quiet!" Zim shouted. "Prince Tarquin, how are our shields holding out?"

Tark checked the monitor displaying the shield strength.

"They're down to sixty-one percent," he replied. "If we avoid using the big cannons for now and direct as much energy  
>as possible to regenerating the shields, I think we can make it to the volcano without blowing up."<p>

Zim nodded in agreement and turned back to the main control panel. The Death Tide stronghold continued firing upon  
>the battle mech, but instead of returning fire, Zim just kept moving toward the volcano. He had to save as much energy<br>as possible to keep the shields at a steady level.

_Just keep going,_ the tiny Irken reminded himself. _Don't return fire, just keep the shields up..._

Another missile struck the ground with intimidating force, almost knocking the mech off balance. As Zim struggled to keep his  
>mech from falling over, Tark noticed several large, heaving clouds pulling away from each other - the way they did when a<br>ship was about to break through them!

"Zim!" he cried. "Something's coming through those clouds!"

Zim's gazed shifted toward the sky just in time to see the Massive break through the clouds and zoom toward the volcanic  
>crater as the tractor beam pulled it in.<p>

"They're pulling the big spaceship into the 'splody-pit!" Gir cried.

Zim typed a command into the mech's command console, then climbed out of the pilot's seat and gestured for Tark and  
>Gir to follow him.<p>

"What are you doing?" Tark demanded.

"I've just set the mech on a crash course into the tower controlling the tractor beam," Zim explained. "The three of us  
>will climb out on to the roof and await the collision. When it happens, we'll ride the resulting explosion to the top of the<br>volcano."

"But won't you 'asplode, too?" Gir asked.

Zim shook his head. "Not if we're wearing these!" He held out two red bracelets, one of which he handed to Tark.  
>"Put this on, Prince Tarquin. It will protect us from the intensity of the blast."<p>

Tark slid the bracelet on to his wrist. Within seconds, his body was clad in a mechanical suit of armor with an invisible  
>helmet over his head, thick pads on his shoulders, and rocket boots on his feet.<p>

_That defect just might know what he's doing after all!_ he thought, clearly impressed with his new suit.

Zim, wearing an identical suit of armor, began to climb up the ladder that would take him to the roof of the mech.

"Quickly, you two!" he said as Tark and Gir began to follow him up the ladder. "We're almost to the control tower!"

* * *

><p>"Captain, the Massive has just entered the atmosphere!" Kerda announced over the comlink. "I'm switching to<br>turbo mode and preparing to pull it in right now."

"Very good, Kerda," Vash replied. She shut off her comlink and turned to face the Tallests, a triumphant grin on  
>her face.<p>

"I'm afraid your little friend in the battle mech has come too late, your Tallests," she said rather diplomatically.  
>"In just a matter of minutes, your precious flagship will crash into the volcano, where it and everyone on board<br>will meet a most unfortunate demise. With its almighty Armada and not-so-almighty leaders destroyed, your pathetic  
>Empire will only be a shadow of its former self, making it so much easier for your enemies to finally bring you down!"<p>

Red tried to stay calm, but Vash's brazen attitude was really getting to him. He wanted nothing more than to kill  
>this twisted female who kidnapped his children and threatened their lives, but he knew he couldn't due to the shackles<br>on his hands and feet and the guns aimed at his PAK. All he could do was watch Vash pace back and forth in front of him  
>and Purple as she rubbed her victory in their faces. His indignation grew with every haughty toss of the Centauri mare's<br>mane and malicious flick of her tail.

Just to Red's right, Purple held a whimpering Mariah against his chest and watched the approaching Massive with dark,  
>solemn eyes. In less than a minute the Irken flagship would crash into the enormous lava-filled crater before him, killing<br>everyone on board. He felt tears forming in his eyes, but he blinked them back. Vash may have won this battle, but she  
>would never get the pleasure of seeing him and Red beg for mercy. If they must die, he vowed, they would die as leaders<br>and not as whimpering cowards.

"Now then," Vash continued, eyeing the Tallests with a triumphant smirk. "Before I continue from where I was so  
>rudely interrupted by that failed rescue attempt, do either of you have any last words? Any last minute pleas for mercy,<br>perhaps?" She tilted her head to one side as she eagerly awaited her expected reply.

Red put his arms around Aiko's and Ven's shoulders as his son and daughter buried their faces in his robe, sobbing  
>softly. At his feet, Sakura curled herself up into a ball and emitted a thin, feeble squeak. The sight of his frightened<br>children made Red numb for a minute, then he was suddenly filled with anger. Eyes burning with hate, he turned his  
>attention back to Vash.<p>

"You are really something, Captain Vash," he snarled ominously. "Never in all my life have I seen someone sink so  
>low as you have! I mean sure, I've met several people who want revenge against my Empire, but at least they have<br>never gone as far as kidnapping innocent smeets and forcing them to pay for the sins of their fathers!"

Vash began to turn pale, but she managed to stay calm.

Then Purple stepped forward and put in his two cents. "And what makes you think everyone will be singing your praises  
>for this? Will avenging your family be worth the thousands of lives you're about to destroy just to carry out your goals?<br>And, most importantly, will you be able to go on living with the blood of innocent Irkens, as well as guilty ones, on your  
>hands?"<p>

Vash just stared at the Tallests, unsure of what to say next. Her henchmen exchanged puzzled glances and shook their  
>heads in bewilderment, as if they couldn't believe that for once their captain was lost for words. Meanwhile, the Massive<br>zoomed closer and closer to the volcano as the tractor beam pulled it in.

Finally, the stunned expression on Vash's face vanished and was replaced by a cold grin.

"I could live with that," she sneered, "considering the fact that Irkens are hardly an innocent race at all!"

She reached forward and snatched Sakura away from Red. But just as she was about to toss the smeet into the crater,  
>an explosion shook the ground, almost knocking everyone off their feet.<p>

"What in Zorlok's name?" Vash whipped her head around just in time to be tackled to the ground by two Irkens and a  
>malfunctioning SIR unit.<p>

"Release my Tallests at once, Vash-Beast, or suffer the wrath of the Almighty Invader Zim!"

* * *

><p><strong>Alright! Zim to the rescue!<strong>

**Sorry this chapter was so short, but I ran out of ideas for it. **


	22. It Ends Now: Part One

**Once again, sorry for the late update. Stupid writer's block...Anyway, here's the next chapter. I hope it was worth the wait!**

* * *

><p>Sheen clutched the railing surrounding the Massive's bridge and closed her lavender eyes tightly as she awaited the inevitable impact<br>with the volcano. Her chest inflated and deflated with every shaky breath she took. All around her alarms blared, consoles exploded,  
>and pilots screamed as they flew across the bridge. This was the end, she just knew it. Soon, she and everyone else aboard the Massive<br>would meet an untimely and horrible death as they crashed into the rapidly approaching volcano.

_This is going to hurt, isn't it?_ thought the Irken princess as tears leaked out of her eyes. _Oh please, if it is going to hurt, I pray the gods  
>take our souls quickly...!<em>

Sheen's prayer was interrupted when a shower of sparks from a nearby exploding console landed on her left cheek, stinging it. The girl  
>cried out and immediately slapped her hand to her burned cheek to protect it from further injury.<p>

"It's over! We're done for!" screamed one of the pilots as he jumped out of his seat to avoid being burned by the sparking console in  
>front of him. But just as he hit the floor, several screens began to flicker on and off, then went completely blank. Within seconds, the<br>screens flashed on once again and remained steady.

"My Tallests!" cried Zarthab. "The tractor beam! It's gone! Our weapons and navigation are back online!"

"Well, don't just stand there, you moron!" cried Azka, who stood on the platform at the center of the bridge with Gem. "Steer us away  
>from that crater!"<p>

"Yes, ma'am!"

Zarthab and his co-pilots immediately got to work trying to slow down the Massive and steer it away from the approaching crater.  
>However, the speed at which the Irken flagship was currently travelling made the task very difficult.<p>

"We're too close to the volcano!" yelled one of the pilots. "I'm not sure if we'll make it."

"You have to try!" Gem shouted back. "We don't have a choice!"

Despite all the shouting and screaming around him, Zarthab managed to stay focused on his job. His eyes narrowed in intense concentration  
>as he struggled to steer the Massive away from danger and bring its speed under control.<p>

"Brace yourselves!" he warned his fellow Irkens. "This is going to be close!"

* * *

><p><em>Back on Igneosa...<em>

Vash watched with horrified eyes as the Massive made a sharp turn to the right, narrowly missing the volcano. The Irken flagship slammed  
>into the Death Tide stronghold, obliterating it as it skidded across the ground for several hundred feet before finally coming to a stop.<p>

"Thank Irk," whispered Red, breathing an immense sigh of relief. "I hope everyone on board is alright."

"I'm sure they're fine," Purple told him. "It's just our snack pods that I'm worried about."

Enraged, Vash shoved Zim and Tark off her chest and jumped to her feet.

"This isn't over yet!" she roared. "If I can't destroy you one way, I can another!"

She lunged at Red and knocked him to the ground, making sure he landed on his stomach. The Irken leader cried out in pain and shock  
>as his body hit the ground with a loud thud. Purple rushed forward to help his co-leader, but Vash sent him flying into a nearby boulder<br>with the powerful kick her species was well-known for. Panting heavily, the Centauri mare turned back to Red, grabbed hold of his PAK,  
>and yanked it out of his back.<p>

"Dad!" screamed Tark. He rushed to his father's side, followed by Aiko, Ven, and Gir.

"Hold the Irkens off and make sure they don't follow me!" Vash barked to Sloor and Selina. "As soon as I dispose of this Tallest's PAK,  
>I'll be back for the other one. As for the rest of you, head down to the Massive and kill any survivors you find."<p>

She tucked Red's PAK under her arm, then galloped furiously away. While Sloor and Selina remained where they were, the rest of Vash's  
>followers hurried down the mountain toward the Massive.<p>

"She's getting away!" cried Aiko.

"She's not going anywhere with Dad's PAK!" growled Tark. He jumped up from his fallen father's side and was about to follow Vash when  
>Sloor and Selina stopped him.<p>

"Sorry, honey, but you're not going anywhere," sneered Selina. She fired her laser gun and burned a long, thin line into the ground between  
>herself and Tark. "If you cross this line, I'm afraid Sloor and I are going to have to shoot you. So don't even try!"<p>

Sloor nodded in agreement.

Tark stared in disbelief at the two Death Tide soldiers, wondering how he was going to deal with them. His gaze shifted toward his dying  
>father, who lay sprawled on the ground surrounded by his brother and two sisters, as well as Gir and...<p>

_Wait a minute!_ thought the Irken prince. _Where is Zim?_ He blinked to make sure he was seeing exactly what he thought he saw. Sure  
>enough, the pint-sized Irken defect was nowhere to be found.<p>

"Where did he go...?" Tark mused aloud, completely forgetting about the two Vortians standing in front of him.

"Stop talking, Irken scum!" growled Sloor. He aimed his gun at Tark's chest and rested his finger on the trigger. "One more word out  
>of you, and...!"<p>

Suddenly, a long, thin metal tentacle shot out from the edge of the crater and wrapped itself around Sloor's leg. Before Sloor had a  
>chance to say anything else, the tentacle dragged him, kicking and screaming, into the volcano.<p>

"What the...!" Surprised by her partner's sudden disappearance, Selina turned her attention away from Tark just long enough for the  
>Irken prince to lunge forward and tackle her to the ground. The blue-eyed Vortian female screamed and struggled to get loose, but Tark<br>managed to hold her down just long enough for a second metal tentacle to grab her by her wrist and drag her into the volcano as well.  
>Just seconds after Selina vanished over the edge, a certain defective Irken climbed out of the volcano and hurried toward Tark.<p>

"Are you alright, Prince Tarquin? Where is the Vash-beast?"

Tark gestured toward the path in which Vash had gone. "She took Dad's PAK and ran down the mountain into that canyon. She knocked  
>out Uncle Taren, too, but she said she'd be back for his PAK later." He sunk to the ground on his knees and buried his face in his hands.<p>

"What do we do now, Zim? I don't want Dad to die like this!"

Zim's gaze shifted from the distraught Irken before him to Red's fallen body. By now, Red had regained consciousness, but without his  
>PAK, he would soon die. Aiko knelt beside her father, holding his hand and sobbing bitterly. Ven sat next to his sister, his arm wrapped<br>around her shoulders. Gir cuddled Sakura and Mariah in his lap and started to sing a lullaby.

Zim pulled Tark to his feet, and the two of them approached Red and the small group surrounding him.

"How much time do you have left, my Tallest?" Zim asked Red.

Red checked his life clock.

"Seven minutes and forty-eight seconds," he replied. His eyes were starting to dim, and his skin was developing a sickly grey hue.  
>"Where's Purple?"<p>

"Over here."

Purple, having regained consciousness from his crash into the boulder, made his way toward the group gathered around his co-leader,  
>holding his right hand against his injured side.<p>

"Uncle Taren, you're bleeding!" cried Ven, staring wide-eyed at Purple's wound.

Purple held up him left hand and waved it in a "calm down" gesture.

"I'm alright, Ven," he calmly assured his co-leaders's concerned son. However, his face paled when he noticed Red's PAK was missing.  
>"What happened?"<p>

"Vash took Dad's PAK and ran down that way," Tark replied, pointing in the direction where Vash had gone. "She also sent her crew to  
>attack the Massive."<p>

"I'm not too worried about the Massive right now," said Purple, turning to look at the wrecked Irken flagship. "I'm pretty sure everyone  
>on board will be able to fight back. However -" his gaze returned to Red "- someone will need to go after Vash and retrieve Red's PAK<br>before she destroys it. I'd go after her myself, but -"

The sound of running feet against rocky ground, followed by a sudden blast, interrupted him. The Tallests and their children turned  
>their heads just in time to see Zim flying away down the canyon after Vash. Gir jumped to his feet and started to follow his master,<br>but Tark grabbed his arm.

"Let him go, Gir," he said. "This is his chance to redeem himself. It wouldn't be right if we stopped him."

A thoughful look crossed Red's face. "I'm not sure if I should be proud of you or disappointed in you for sticking up for that defect," he  
>said, forcing a weak smile despite his pain.<p>

Tark just shrugged and smiled back. "Why not both?"

* * *

><p><em>Back on the Massive...<em>

Zarthab groaned and pulled himself to his feet. As soon as he shook the remaining dizziness from his head, he studied the room  
>around him. Broken consoles gave off smoke and sparks, broken glass littered the floor, and several of his co-pilots lay on the<br>floor, moaning softly.

"Is everyone alright?" the head communications officer asked his battered comraddes.

"I think I broke something," whimpered a green-eyed male pilot. A purple-eyed female pilot helped him to his feet and led him  
>to the elevator that would take them to the infirmary.<p>

Gem glanced nervously around the room until her eyes found Sheen, who was still holding on to the railing that surrounded the  
>bridge. The plum-eyed Tallest carefully made her way through the littered control room to her daughter. The girl had a few burns<br>on her face and hands from the sparking consoles, but other than that, she was fine.

"Are you okay, Sheen?" asked Gem as she carefully placed her hand on her daughter's shoulder.

"I'm fine, Mom," Sheen replied. She coughed and waved the smoke from a nearby console away from her face. "Are we dead yet?"

"My Tallests!" cried Guardsman Toff as he rushed into the room, eyes wide with fear. "We've got a crowd of soldiers coming down  
>the mountain straight toward us! I think it's Death Tide!"<p>

Azka and Gem followed Toff to the damaged docking bay to see for themselves. Sure enough, a crowd of various aliens wielding  
>guns and other weapons was hurrying down the side of the volcano toward the wrecked Massive. Azka quickly turned to one of<br>her advisors.

"Ko, are any of our weapons operational?" she asked.

Ko checked his computerized clipboard. "Most of our primary laser turrets were damaged in the crash, as were our plasma cannons,  
>but I think our main ion cannon is still operational," he replied.<p>

"How about our planetary cannon?" Gem asked.

"Smashed beyond recognition, my Tallest," Ko replied sadly.

"We'll have to make do with the ion cannon, then," said Azka. Turning back toward the bridge, she ordered, "Zarthab, activate the  
>main ion cannon and aim it at those rocks just above the mountain pass! That should hold them off and buy us some time to prepare<br>for their attack!"

Zarthab promptly saluted. "Yes my Tallest!" He darted back to the bridge and repeated Azka's command to the gunners, who immediately  
>got to work. Within seconds, the cannon was locked on to its target and ready to fire.<p>

"Steady...wait for it!" Zarthab watched the rebels carefully as they charged down the mountain toward the Massive, waiting for them to  
>reach the spot directly beneath the rocks Azka had pointed out. When they arrived at the designated area, Zarthab raised his arm and<br>gave the command.

"Fire!"

The Massive shook with the force of the shot as the cannon fired. A bright blue streak shot out of one of the Massive's upper decks and  
>slammed into a pile of large rocks located on a ledge just above the approaching group of attackers. The resulting explosion immediately<br>started a rock slide which blocked the pass - and, judging by those cries of pain in the distance, injured a few of the rebels as well.

Taking advantage of the extra time the rock slide had just bought them, the Irkens wasted no time in gathering all available weapons,  
>from laser guns to grenades. They rushed out of the Massive and lined up in front of the damaged Irken mothership, ready to defend<br>it as well as everyone else on board. Before long, the remaining Death Tide rebels emerged over the blockage and came rushing down  
>the pass, screaming bloody murder.<p>

"Attack!"

The Irken soldiers rushed forward to greet their attackers and mercilessly opened fire. Cries rang out as fighters from both sides took  
>shots and dropped out. The Irkens had the advantages of a greater number and more hand-to-hand combat experience, but the Death<br>Tide rebels had the advantage of more powerful and advanced weapons. Still, the Irken soldiers defended their ship and their leaders  
>as best they could, despite the fact that their number was gradually decreasing.<p>

"Give it all you got, men!" shouted an Irken Elite commander. "We aren't going down that easily!"

"Give up, Irken slime!" screamed a Death Tide sniper. "You're done for!"

Suddenly, the ground began to shake quite violently, causing everyone to stop fighting. The volcano rumbled ominously as several  
>clouds of thick, dark smoke poured out of its top. Several pairs of eyes widened in fear as they realized what was about to happen.<p>

"Run! She's gonna blow!"

* * *

><p><strong>Vash has Red's PAK, Zim's gone after her, and now the volcano's going to blow its top! Pretty cruel of me to end the chapter here, <strong>  
><strong>is it not?<strong>


	23. It Ends Now: Part Two

**At long last, chapter 23 is up! I would have updated sooner, but things were chaotic due to my recent move. Plus, I'm lazy.**

* * *

><p>Vash trudged along the rocky path leading down one of the many lava tubes on Igneosa. She clutched Red's PAK in one hand and shielded<br>her eyes from the sparks and ash in the air with the other. She panted heavily, half from exhaustion and half from the intense heat around  
>her. She winced as she felt the heat from the metal PAK burn into her hand, but she gritted her teeth and refused to drop it. She was<br>determined to defeat her old enemy and avenge her family, even if it killed her.

_Almost there,_ she thought as she brushed her sweaty bangs from her forehead. _Just a few more steps..._

Several feet in front of her lay a deep trench through which flowed a raging river of lava. An occasional rumble from the erupting volcano  
>caused several rocks to drop from the edges of the trench into the lava, where they quickly melted and merged with the searing liquid. Vash<br>steadied herself against the wall of the cave to keep from losing her footing and falling into the lava herself. As soon as the rumbling stopped,  
>she made her way to the edge of the trench and held Red's PAK above the lava.<p>

"I may not have been able to destroy the Armada," she remarked, "but at least I can still take my revenge on the Irken who destroyed my  
>life!" She swung the PAK back and forth as she prepared to toss it into the liquid inferno beneath her. Her mouth formed into a cruel, vengeful<br>grin.

"Say good night, your Tallest!"

"Return my Tallest's PAK at once, Vash-beast!"

Vash whipped her head around at the sudden interruption. Zim had caught up with her and was now standing directly to her left, eyes narrowed  
>and ready for a fight.<p>

"It's over, Centauri stink-beast! You've been defeated. Why don't you just give up?"

Vash grinned and continued dangling Red's PAK above the lava. "I have no idea what you're talking about, small fry," she sneered. "Why don't  
>you just get out of here before I decide to throw you into the lava, too?" A thoughtful expression crossed her face. "Actually, that wouldn't be<br>such a bad idea, since your race hates you so much..."

"Lies!" Zim screamed. "My race loves me and adores me! In fact, the Tallests were so impressed with my incredible talent that they gave me  
>a top-secret mission to planet Earth!"<p>

Vash smiled smugly and shook her head. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. You still haven't figured it out, have you, Zim?"

The determined scowl on Zim's face quickly vanished. The tiny Irken cocked his head to one side in confusion.

"Eh? What are you talking about?" he asked.

Still clutching Red's PAK, Vash marched toward Zim, eyes burning with unspeakable fury. Her ears were flattened against her skull, and her  
>lips curled back into a snarl, showing her sharp, fox-like teeth.<p>

"You fool!" she cried. "After all the trouble you've caused the Irken Empire, why would your leaders have any respect whatsoever for you?  
>You've done nothing but rain doom upon your wretched race from the moment you were born! You killed two of your past leaders, you ruined<br>Irk's first attempt at galactic conquest, you even tried to fly the Massive into the sun!" A harsh laugh escaped her lips. "Can't you see, Zim?  
>The Tallests lied to you. They were so sick of having to deal with you, they sent you on a fake mission just to get rid of you."<p>

Zim stared at his foe in disbelief. He remembered Tak and Sizz-Lorr telling him the same thing, and yet he'd refused to believe them. And  
>now, this twisted woman was shoving that same claim in his face all over again. For once, he wasn't sure what to believe anymore.<p>

"Th-they wouldn't," he stammered. "Would they?"

Vash's insane cackle ripped through the ash-laden air like a saw.

"Of course they would, you moron! They knew that keeping you around would mean sealing their doom, as well as the entire Irken race's.  
>They only pretended to admire and love you so you wouldn't get suspicious of their true intentions. Don't you understand? You will never<br>be anything but a worthless defect to them!"

Vash's words froze Zim right where he stood. He didn't want to believe what she'd just told him about the Tallests lying to him, but something  
>deep inside told him there might be some truth to her words. He remembered the times he'd called the Tallests to give them a status report<br>on his mission, and for some reason they'd never showed much interest in his reports. They'd also been eager to end the calls suddenly,  
>before Zim was finished discussing his plans for the mission.<p>

And then there was Gir, the useless excuse for a SIR unit they'd given him...

As his mind returned to the present, the defective Irken sunk to the ground on his knees and wrapped his arms around his legs, pulling  
>himself into a huddle.<p>

"I don't know what to believe anymore," he whispered to himself. "Maybe Vash and the Tallests are right. Maybe I am just a worthless  
>defect who shouldn't even exist..."<p>

Vash smirked as she watched Zim back down. Her smile, however, quickly vanished when she noticed several large, burning rocks shoot  
>out of the volcano where she'd recently abandoned her prisoners. A dangerous volcanic eruption was clearly underway. If she stuck around<br>much longer, she would more than likely be killed.

"It's now or never!" she muttered through clenched teeth.. Turning away from Zim, she grabbed Red's PAK by its metal tentacles, swung  
>it over her head, and whipped it in a circle like a lasso. With one last powerful heave, she released the PAK, sending it sailing right into the<br>lava-filled trench.

"That's one Tallest gone!" she cried in insane triumph. "Now for the other one...!"

Vash's moment of triumph was cut short when a red and green blur shot past her head and into the trench, where it quickly snatched the  
>PAK out of the air.<p>

"You again!" cried the crazed Centauri mare. "But how...?"

Tark glared at her as he hovered above the lava-filled trench with the aid of his rocket boots, holding Red's PAK against his chest. Before  
>Vash could say or do anything else, the Irken boy charged at her and tackled her to the ground. He pinned the Centauri mare's arms to<br>the ground with his hands and used two of his PAK legs to do the same with her front legs. He aimed his remaining two PAK legs at Vash's  
>chest.<p>

"You monster!" he growled. "You don't deserve to live!"

"Go ahead, kill me!" sneered the Death Tide commander. "If you truly are a member of the mighty Irken race, you'll finish off your foe  
>once you've defeated them." She smirked maliciously. "Besides, isn't that something your father would have done?"<p>

Tark's scowl intensified.

"I am not my father!" he snapped.

Vash bit her lip. Tark was clearly a harder nut to crack than Zim. "I wonder if your father ever wished you could be more like him. He  
>must have been ashamed to have such a coward and a weakling for a son."<p>

"He wasn't," Tark replied. "He may not have approved of every choice I made, but he always trusted me to do the right thing."

"You really believe that? Maybe that's just what he wanted you to think!"

Tark pushed his foot harder into Vash's stomach.

"You listen good, you four-legged piece of s***! You don't know a d*** thing about me or my father, so why don't you just shut up?"

Vash opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by a deafening roar from the erupting volcano. Zim jumped to his feet and rushed  
>toward Tark and his downed opponent.<p>

"Prince Tarquin, we must leave this planet at once!" he said. "It's too dangerous to stay here any longer!"

Tark nodded and retracted his PAK legs, releasing Vash. The Centauri mare watched in stunned silence as the two Irkens hurried away from  
>her, eager to escape Igneosa before the eruption worsened. As the fact that her last chance at revenge was slipping away sunk in, a sudden<br>rush of rage flowed through Vash's veins, filling her with unspeakable fury. She scrambled to her feet and quickly pulled her favorite laser  
>gun out of its scabbard at her waist.<p>

"You shall not escape me!" she screamed as she pulled the trigger.

Zim flinched when he felt Tark's grip on his arm tighten, then suddenly go limp. He turned his head to the left just in time to see Tark stumble  
>to the ground, clutching his lower left abdomen and wincing in pain. Zim dropped down on his knees and threw his arms around Tark, cradling<br>the boy's head in his lap.

"Zim...get out of here...now," moaned the younger Irken. "Make sure...everyone...gets off...the planet...unharmed..."  
>His breath came in labored gasps.<p>

"I'm not leaving without you, Prince Tarquin," Zim replied. "Even if what Vash told me about the Tallests is true, I won't leave you..." A lump  
>rose in his throat, cutting him off. He took a deep breath and swallowed before continuing. "I won't leave you to pay the price for something<br>your father did. No matter how terrible it was..."

A small smile crossed Tark's face. "Thanks, Zim..."

By now, Vash had caught up with the two Irkens. Zim turned his head to face the Centauri mare, eyes burning with hate.

"You did this!" he hissed ominously.

Vash just snorted in reply.

"Isn't that sweet?" she sneered. "After all the trouble the Tallest went through to get rid of you, you're still going out of your way to protect his  
>son?" She chuckled evilly and shook her head. "This has got to be the most ironic thing I've ever seen in my life! Too bad neither of you will be<br>leaving this planet alive!"

She lifted her gun and prepared to fire when Zim lunged at her and tackled her to the ground, screaming bloody murder.

"No one taunts Zim in such a fashion!" he cried. "No one!"

Vash cried out as Zim grabbed her antennae and yanked them as hard as he could. The Centauri mare shook her head and bucked violently,  
>trying to force her attacker to let go, but the stubborn little Irken held on tight. As she tried to aim her gun at Zim, he quickly kicked it out of<br>her hand and sent it flying out of her reach.

"You little pest! I'll teach you to mess with Vash, leader of Death Tide!"

She galloped toward the wall of the cave and swung her head toward it, slamming Zim into the solid rock wall. Zim winced as pain shot through  
>his body, but he tightened his grip on Vash's antennae and refused to let go as the Centauri mare continued trying to shake him off. As the fight<br>went on, Vash began to stray dangerously close to the lava-filled trench, but due to her fit of insane anger, she failed to notice.

Zim, however, noticed the approaching lava right away and began watching it carefully, waiting for just the right moment to let go of Vash's  
>head. The increasing amount of ash and sparks in the air, along with Vash's relentless shaking and bucking, was making him dizzy. Still, he<br>fought to stay focused.

A sudden explosion from the volcano shook the ground with its force, knocking Vash off her feet. As the Centauri's body hit the ground, Zim was  
>forced to let go of her antennae. The Irken tumbled along the rocky ground before coming to a stop just inches from the fiery trench. Shuddering,<br>Zim scooted away from the edge of the trench and turned his attention back to Vash, who had just pulled herself to her feet and was now shaking  
>her head to rid herself of any remaining dizziness. As the Centauri mare regained consciousness, Zim quickly jumped to his feet, deployed his PAK<br>legs, and braced himself for his enemy's next move.

Vash jabbed a finger in Zim's direction. "You're finished!" She lunged forward and started to gallop toward the defective Irken, ready to knock him  
>into the trench.<p>

Meanwhile, Tark fought to stay awake, but his consciousness was slipping away fast. His eyes scanned the area until they rested upon Vash's gun,  
>which lay several feet in front of him, where Vash had dropped it while fighting Zim. Pressing his arm to his wound, the Irken boy crawled toward<br>the gun and shakily picked it up. His vision blurred as he pressed his hand to the trigger.

"You can't hurt anyone anymore!" were his last words as he fired the final shot and collapsed. The last two things he could remember hearing before  
>slipping entirely into unconsciousness were the roar of the volcano and Vash's painful, angry screams.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>In case you're wondering how Vash knew about Zim's mission being a lie...let's just say she had her sources!<strong>


	24. I've Returned!

Hello, everyone! I know it's been awhile, but don't worry, I'm not dead. I was blocked from Fanfiction for a long time, because of something on my parents' router. However, thanks to a link someone on deviantArt gave me, I have recently managed to bypass that block! Just so everyone knows, I haven't forgotten Zim's Babysitting Job Of Doom, and I do plan on finishing it. I would also like to re-write Space In Your Face, because reading it now makes me shudder. It wasn't really all that well planned out, especially the part where Jet and Maya meet (this is the main part I want to re-do).

Well, just thought I'd let you all know, I'm back!

FarSideOfTheSun 


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